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HISTORIC VIRGINIA 
HOMES AND CHURCHES 



3 



THIS LIMITED EDITION HAS BEEN PRINTED 
FROM TYPE AND THE TYPE DISTRIBUTED 



HISTORIC VIRGINIA 
HOMES AND CHURCHES 

BY ROBERT A. LANCASTER, Jr. 

WITH 316 ILLUSTRATIONS 








The Old Tower* 
Jaa-ne-stown. 




PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

MCMXV 



Fzz 7 



COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 



PUBLISHED OCTOBER, 1915 



// 



the- 



PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS 

PHILADELPHIA, U S.A. 




GORDONSDALE, FAUQUIER COUNTY 

See page 38-t 



PREFACE 

This work includes practically all of the principal 
Colonial homes of historic interest in the State of Virginia 
now standing and many which have been destroyed, to- 
gether with the churches most likely to engage attention. 

In 1888 the writer began to gather photographs of 
historic buildings in Virginia for his private collection, and 
later, upon the request of friends, decided to publish them. 
The making of the collection as complete as possible and 
the gathering of the historical data have involved years of 
labor and much travelling in conveyances of many sorts 
and by foot. It may be said that the work was done 
at the psychological time, for much information gath- 
ered in past years would now be impossible to secure and 
much of that recently added will soon be as inaccessible. 
The information has been made as full as the great number 
of houses treated would allow. 

As alterations in buildings have been frequent, the 
writer's aim in such cases has been to secure pictures of as 
early a period as possible while they were in their original 



vi PREFACE 

condition, so as to show the character of houses and 
churches our ancestors built. For instance, the picture 
shown of St. John's Church, Hampton, was taken from one 
published some fifty years ago rather than from one show- 
ing it as it is to-day after the original has been altered. 
The photographs of Montpelier, Eagle Point, Belleville, 
and many other places, also show these edifices before the 
existing alterations were made. 

The author wishes to acknowledge with thanks the great 
assistance rendered by Mrs. Mary Newton Stanard, and 
Mr. William Clayton Torrence, Secretary of the Valen- 
tine Museum, and Mr. William G. Stanard, Secretary of 
the Virginia Historical Society, without whose help he 
could not have secured much valuable information. He 
also appreciates the assistance rendered by Mrs. Sally 
Nelson Robins, Mr. G. C. Callahan of Philadelphia, Mrs. 
I. H. Carrington, Miss Kate Mason Roland, Mrs. James 
Lyons, Mrs. John Dunn, Mrs. Philip A. Bruce, the late 
General William B. Taliaferro and his family, Mr. Carter 
Wellford, Mr. Morgan P. Robinson, the late Thomas Boil- 
ing, Mr. Preston Cocke, Mr. Thomas N. Carter, the officers 
of the R. F. and P. R. R., C. and O. Ry., and Tidewater 
and Western R. R. and Hon. F. B. Hutton and Miss 
Ellen W. Preston of Abingdon, Va. ; and to Mr. H. P. 
Cook for a few jnctures from his collection; also the hos- 
pitality extended at the various homes visited in making 

the collection. 

R. A. L., Jr. 

Richmond, July, 1915 




BROOK HILL, HENRICO COUNTY 

See page 113 

CONTENTS 

PART PAGE 

I. Jamestown, Williamsburg, Yorktown 1 

II. Hampton Roads and the Lower James 41 

III. Richmond, Manchester and the Upper James 114 

IV. Gloucester and the York River Country 215 

V. The Rappahannock and Potomac 287 • 

VI. Piedmont and the South Side 373 

VII. Beyond the Mountains 446 

VIII. The Eastern Shore 482 

All houses and names of families mentioned in this 
book are contained in the index, pages 503-527. 

vii 




SABINE HALL, GARDEN FRONT 

See page 333 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Monticello Frontispiece 

GoRDONSDALE, FAUQUIER COUNTY V 

Brook Hill, Henrico County vii 

Sabine Hall, Garden Front ix 

PART I— JAMESTOWN, WILLIAMSBURG, YORKTOWN 

Ambler House, Jamestown y?': wC . 3 

Jamestown Church and Old Tower 3 

Foundations of Old Jamestown Church 7 

William and Mary College, Williamsburg 11 

Blair House, Williamsburg 16 

Bruton Church, Williamsburg 17 

Wythe House, Williamsburg 20 

Saunders House, Williamsburg 21 

Page House, Williamsburg 22 

Court House, Williamsburg 23 

Tucker House, Williamsburg 24 

Coleman House, W t illiamsburg 24 

Old Powder Horn at Williamsburg 25 

Raleigh Tavern, Williamsburg, and the Apollo Room . . 27 

Carter House, Williamsburg 30 

ix 



x ILLUSTRATIONS 

Tazewell Hall, Williamsburg 33 

Nelson House, Yorktown 35 

Custom House, Yorktown 35 

Moore House, near Yorktown 38 

Ringfield House, York County 39 

Porto Bello, York County 40 

PART II— HAMPTON ROADS AND THE LOWER JAMES 

Rolleston, Princess Anne County 42 

St. Paul's Church, Norfolk 43 

Myers House, Norfolk 43 

Thoroughgood House, Princess Anne County 46 

St. John's Church, Hampton 47 

Eastern Shore Chapel, Princess Anne County 48 

St. Luke's Church, Isle of Wight County 51 

Bacon's Castle, Surry County 53 

The Hall at Carter's Grove 55 

Carter's Grove, James City County 55 

Four Mile Tree, Surry County 58 

Claremont, Surry County 61 

Tedington, Charles City County 63 

Brandon, Prince George County 65 

The Hall at Brandon G5 

Upper Brandon, Prince George County 71 

Weyanoke, Charles City County 73 

Sherwood Forest, Charles City County 74 

Flower de Hundred, Prince George County 76 

Merchant's Hope Church, Prince George County ... 77 

Westover, Charles City County 79 

Westover Gates 81 

The Parlor at Westover 82 

Westover During the War 1861-1865 84 

W t estover Church 85 

Berkeley, Charles City County 87 

Appomattox, Prince George County 91 

Blandford Church, Petersburg 92 

bollingbrook, petersburg 94 



ILLUSTRATIONS xi 

Centre Hill, Petersburg 95 

Collecting Chicken Feed in the Olden Days 96 

Hattersea, Near Petersburg 97 

Mansfield, Near Petersburg 98 

Shirley, Charles City County 99 

Malvern Hill, Henrico County 104 

Wilton, Henrico County 107 

Powhatan, Henrico County 107 

Ampthill, Chesterfield County 109 

Falling Creek Mill, Chesterfield County 109 

Eppington, Chesterfield County Ill 

PART III— RICHMOND, MANCHESTER AND THE UPPER 

JAMES 

Marketing Tobacco in the Old Days 114 

Richmond in 1800 115 

The Home of the Late General Joseph R. Anderson, 

Richmond 117 

St. John's Church, Richmond 119 

Old Masonic Hall, Richmond 122 

Van Lew or Adams House, Richmond (Front) 123 

Van Lew or Adams House (Rear) 123 

Ticket for Masonic Dinner Given in Honor of General 

Lafayette 125 

Monumental Church, Richmond 127 

Archer House, Richmond 127 

Crump House, Richmond . 131 

The White House of the Confederacy, Richmond .... 131 

Richmond in 1833 135 

The Hall at Valentine Museum, Richmond 139 

Valentine Museum, Formerly Wickham House, Richmond 139 

McCance House, Richmond 143 

Gamble House, Richmond 1-13 

Governor's Mansion, Richmond 146 

State Capitol, Richmond 147 

Home of Chief Justice Marshall, Richmond 147 



xii ILLUSTRATIONS 

Westmoreland Club, the Stanard House, Richmond . . . 150 

Richmond in 1848 151 

Allan House, Richmond 155 

Bullock House, Richmond 158 

Swan Tavern, Richmond 159 

Gray House, South Richmond 160 

Black Heath, Chesterfield County 161 

Chesterfield Court House 162 

Salisbury, Chesterfield County 163 

Norwood, Powhatan County 164 

Beaumont, Powhatan County 165 

Paxton, Powhatan County 166 

Tuckahoe, Goochland County 169 

Belmead, Powhatan County 169 

School-house at Tuckahoe 172 

Oakland, Cumberland County 175 

Oakland, Showing the Grove 175 

Sabot Hill, Goochland County 178 

Dover, Goochland County 179 

Howard's Neck, Goochland County 181 

Rock Castle, Goochland County 182 

Bolling Hall, Goochland County 183 

"Uncle" Asa and "Aunt" Jinsey at Bolling Island . . 184 

Bolling Island, Goochland County 185 

Union Hill, Cumberland County 185 

Clifton, Cumberland County 186 

Bellmont, Buckingham County 187 

Barn at Bremo 188 

Bremo, Fluvanna County (Front) 189 

Bremo (Rear) 189 

Lower Bremo, Fluvanna County 191 

Wind-power Grist Mill in Mathews County 193 

The Old "Marshall," the Last Packet Boat Run on 

James River and Kanawha Canal 193 

Point-of-Fork, Fluvanna County 195 

Cumberland Court House 196 

Effingham Tavern, Cumberland Court House 197 

Ampthill, Cumberland County 197 



ILLUSTRATIONS xiii 

Liberty Hall, Nelson County 198 

Union Hill, Nelson County 100 

Edgewood, Nelson County 201 

Soldier's Joy, Nelson County 203 

Otter Burn, Bedford County 204 

Oak Ridge, Nelson County 205 

Pharsalia, Nelson County 207 

Ionia, Louisa County 210 

Brackett's, Louisa County 211 

West End, Louisa County 213 

Sylvania, Louisa County 214 

PART IV— GLOUCESTER AND THE YORK RIVER 
COUNTRY 

Old Windmill, Mathews County 215 

tlmberneck, gloucester county 217 

Powhatan's Chimney, Timberneck Creek 218 

Rose well, Gloucester County 221 

Carter's Creek (Fairfield), Gloucester County .... 227 

Green Plains, Mathews County 227 

Poplar Grove, Mathews County 232 

Tide Mill at Poplar Grove 232 

Auburn, Mathews County 233 

Belleville, Gloucester County 234 

Dunham Massie, North River, Gloucester County . . . 235 

Elmington, North River, Gloucester County 236 

The Exchange, North River, Gloucester County. . . . 237 

Ice-house, at Exchange 238 

Toddsbury, North River (Front), Gloucester County . 239 

Toddsbury (Rear) 239 

White Marsh, Gloucester County 242 

Glenroy, Gloucester County 244 

White Hall, Gloucester County 245 

Airville, Gloucester County 246 

Warner Hall on the Severn, Gloucester County . . . 248 

Sherwood, Gloucester County 249 

Eagle Point, Gloucester County 250 

Hesse, Gloucester County 252 



xiv ILLUSTRATIONS 

Ware Church, Gloucester County 255 

Abingdon Churoh, Gloucester County 256 

Tavern at Gloucester Court House 257 

St. Peter's Church, New Kent County 258 

Cedar Grove, New Kent County 260 

Providence Forge, New Kent County 261 

Hampstead, New Kent County 262 

The Hall at Hampstead 263 

Eltham, New Kent County 264 

Clover Lea, Hanover County 265 

Chelsea, King William County 267 

Elsing Green, King William County 268 

Horn Quarter, King William County 269 

Mattapony Church, King and Queen County 270 

Hanover Court House 271 

Tavern at Hanover Court House 275 

Hickory Hill, Hanover County 276 

Fork Church, Hanover County 278 

Oakland, Hanover County 279 

Scotchtown, Hanover County 281 

Edgewood, Hanover County 282 

Parlor at Edgewood 283 

Dining-room at Edgewood 283 

New Market, Hanover County 285 

PART V— THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 

Following the Hounds 289 

Rosegill, Middlesex County 289 

Blandfield, Essex County : . 293 

Vauter's Church, Essex County 295 

The Hall at Gaymont, Caroline County 297 

Ormesby, Caroline County 298 

House Where Stonewall Jackson Died, Fairfield, Caro- 
line County 298 

North Garden, Caroline and Spottsylvania Counties . 299 

Marye House, Fredericksburg 300 

Mary Washington House, Fredericksburg 301 

Rising Sun Tavern, Fredericksburg 301 



ILLUSTRATIONS xv 

Kenmore, Fredericksburg 303 

The Parlor at Kenmore 304 

The Falls, Near Fredericksburg 305 

Fall Hill, Spottsylvania County 306 

Roxbury, Spottsylvania County 308 

Ditchley, Northumberland County 310 

Mantua, Northumberland County 311 

Bewdley, Lancaster County 313 

Epping Forest, Lancaster County 313 

Towles Point, Lancaster County 315 

Christ Church, Lancaster County 317 

Interior, Christ Church 317 

St. Mary's White Chapel, Lancaster County 320 

Bladensfield, Richmond County 322 

Kirnan, Westmoreland County 323 

Stratford, Westmoreland County 327 

Sabine Hall, Richmond County 327 

Yeocomico Church, Westmoreland County 331 

Farnham Church, Richmond County 333 

The Hall, Sabine Hall, Richmond County 335 

Mt. Airy, Richmond County 339 

Mt. Airy, Rear View 341 

Menokin, Richmond County 345 

Cleve, King George County 346 

Barnsfield, King George County 348 

Chatham, Stafford County 349 

Boscobel, Near Fredericksburg 352 

Old-time Method of Cooking as Used at Boscobel up to 

1905 353 

Acquia Church, Stafford County 354 

Interior of Acquia Church 355 

Mt. Vernon, Fairfax County 357 

Mt. Vernon, Rear View 359 

Pohick Church, Fairfax County 363 

Gunston Hall, Fairfax County 364 

Christ Church, Alexandria 366 

Carlyle House, Alexandria 368 

Arlington, Alexandria County 369 



xvi ILLUSTRATIONS 

PART VI— PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 

Oak Hill (Front), Loudoun County 374 

Oak Hill (Rear) 375 

Oatlands, Loudoun County 376 

Old Methodist Church, Leesburg 377 

Raspberry Plain, Loudoun County 378 

Morven Park, Loudoun County 379 

Oak Hill, Fauquier County 383 

Montpelier, Orange County 387 

Rocklands, Orange County 390 

Frascati, Orange County 391 

Barboursville, Orange County 393 

Edge Hill, Albemarle County 393 

Castle Hill, Albemarle County 397 

Starting the Hunt 397 

Belyoir, Albemarle County 399 

The Rotunda — University of Virginia 407 

Farmington, Albemarle County 410 

Redlands. Albemarle County 411 

Monticola, Albemarle County 413 

Woodville, Albemarle County 415 

Estouteville, Albemarle County 415 

The Hall at Estouteville 416 

Tallwood, Albemarle County 416 

Plain Dealing, Albemarle County, and Interior . . . .417 

Mountain Top, Albemarle County 419 

Clover Forest, Prince Edward County 421 

Green Hill, Campbell County 422 

Old Negro Couple at Cabin at Red Hill 425 

Red Hill, Charlotte County 425 

Staunton Hill, Charlotte County 428 

Ingleside, Charlotte County 431 

The Old Mill at Greenfield, Charlotte County .... 432 

Greenfield, Charlotte County 433 

The Garden Walk at Greenfield 433 

Berry Hill, Halifax County, and Interior 436 

Bellevue, Halifax County 437 

Banister Lodge, Halifax County 438 



ILLUSTRATIONS xvii 

Roanoke, Charlotte County 140 

Mulberry Hill, Charlotte County 441 

Mildendo Halifax County 442 

Prestwould, Mecklenburg County 1-U 

Ivy Cliff, Bedford County 14.") 

PART VII— BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 

Old Stone Church, Augusta County 44(i 

Greenway Court, Clarke County 447 

Old Springdale House, Frederick County 448 

Springdale, Frederick County 449 

Abraham's Delight, Near Winchester 450 

Old Stone Chapel, Clarke County 453 

Carter Hall Clarke County 455 

Long Branch, Clarke County 455 

Saratoga, Clarke County 459 

Clifton, Clarke County 460 

Pagebrook, Clarke County 461 

Natural Bridge 462 

On the Road to Natural Bridge (1889) 463 

Wallawhatoola, Bath County 465 

The Meadows, Washington County 466 

Old Byars House. Washington County 467 

Smithfield, Montgomery County 469 

Preston House, Abingdon 471 

Fort Lewis, Bath County 471 

Green Valley, Bath County 475 

Mont Calm, Abingdon 476 

Typical Frontier Block House Used for Protection 

Against Indians 481 

PART VIII— THE EASTERN SHORE 

Mt. Custis, Accomac County 483 

w'elbourne, horntown, accomac county 484 

St. George's Church, Pungoteague, Accomac County . . 485 

Brownsville, Northampton County 486 

Vaucluse, Northampton County 488 

West House, Deep Creek 489 



xviii ILLUSTRATIONS 

Duckington, Northampton County . 490 

Cessford, Eastville, Northampton County 490 

Shepherd's Plain, Accomac County 491 

Melvin House, Accomac County 492 

Custis House, Deep Creek 492 

Callahan House, Locust Mount, Accomac County . . . 493 

Margaret Academy, Accomac County 494 

Wallop House, Accomac County 494 

Mount Wharton, Accomac County 495 

Hun gars Church, Northampton County 496 

Bowman's Folly ; Accomac County 499 

Roseland.. Accomac County 500 

Warren House, Surry County 503 

Talbot Hall, Norfolk County 527 



HISTORIC VIRGINIA HOMES 
AND CHURCHES 

PART I 

Jamestown Williamsburg Yorktown 

jamestown 

THE story of Virginia, as of America, begins at 
Jamestown. 
On December 20, 1606, three ships, the Susan 
Constant, the Godspeed and the Discovery, 
dropped down the Thames from London. Through the 
months of January, February, March and nearly all of 
April, they bore steadily across the Atlantic. They were 
mere toys— white dots on the bosom of the vasty deep — yet 
they were bringing a new order of things to a New World 
— they were bringing England to the Red Man's Land. 
Aboard them were Captain Christopher Newport, Ad- 
miral of the fleet, and one hundred and three stout-hearted, 
adventurous spirits, fifty-four of whom were " gentlemen," 
four " carpenters " and 'twenty- four " laborers." Seven of 
these were to form the Council of State to govern the 
Colony they were coming to plant. These were Edward 
Maria Wingfield, Bartholomew Gosnold, Christopher 
Newport, John Smith, John Ratcliffe, John Martin, 
George Kendall, but the document appointing them was 
brought in a sealed box which was not to be opened, " nor 
the governors known until they reached land." There was 
also a godlv Church of England minister, Reverend Robert 
Hunt, for the instructions of the King's Council for Vir- 
ginia had warned them that " every plantation which our 
Heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted out." 
Upon April 26, they arrived at the Cape, which they 



2 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

named Henry for the Prince of Wales. There they set up 
a cross, then sailed into Chesapeake Bay and up James 
River. 

Upon May 13, when the beauty of the spring season 
made them think that they had found in Virginia " earth's 
only paradise,' 1 they chose the site for Jamestown and with 
their ships floating in six fathoms of water made fast to 
the trees upon the bank. 

On the fourteenth, they put themselves and their goods 
ashore, and gentlemen and laborers alike fell to work cut- 
ting down trees to make a clearing for their fort, within 
which rude cabins were soon built. " For a church," says 
Captain John Smith, " wee did hang ... an old saile to 
three or foure trees to shadow us from the Sunne, our 
walles were railes of wood, our seats unhewed trees, till we 
cut plankes, our Pulpit a bar of wood nailed to two neigh- 
bouring trees . . . this was our Church till we built a homely 
thing like a barne, set upon crachets covered with rafters, 
sedge and earth; so was also the walls. The best of our 
houses ( were ) of the like curiosity, but the most part, f arre 
much worse workmanship, that neither could well defend 
wind or rain ; yet we had daily common Prayer morning and 
evening every Sunday, two sermons, and every three 
months the holy communion till our minister died : but our 
prayers daily, with our homily on Sunday, we continued 
two or three years after, till more Preachers came." 

Spring in Virginia was full of fair promises, but with 
summer came the deadly " ague and fever " and other dis- 
eases caused by the swampy situation and bad drinking 
water. Danger from the Indians was ever present; food 
became scarce; dissensions arose. Every one knows the 
story of the trying years that followed, with Captain 
Smith's strenuous efforts to keep the colony alive, his cap- 
ture by the Indians and rescue by Pocahontas, the colonists' 
devoted friend. Its climax was reached in the " starving 
time " —the winter of 1609-1610 — when only the arrival of 
Lord Delaware with provisions and new settlers saved 
Jamestown from being abandoned. 




AMBLER HOl'SE, JAMESTOWN 




JAMESTOWN CHURCH AND OLD TOWER 



JAMESTOWN 5 

After this, though there were still great suffering and 
many deaths, Virginia grew in strength. In 1(314 the bap- 
tism of Pocahontas and her marriage with John Kolfe 
made a bond of friendship between the red man and the 
white. In 1619 Virginians were given the right to share in 
their own government. A popular legislature was author- 
ized and the House of Burgesses, the first representative 
Assembly, not only of America, but of all the King's Col- 
onies, met on July 30, in the church. In this year also 
twenty picked maidens, " pure and undefiled," were sent 
over to make homes for such of the bachelor settlers as 
were willing to pay for their transportation — provided said 
bachelors took the fancy of the maids — and when the pair- 
ing off was accomplished Parson Bucke united the twenty 
happy pairs in holy wedlock. 

These auspicious events were followed by a frightful 
disaster — the Indian Massacre of 1622, when nearly four 
hundred Colonists were murdered, but from which James- 
town escaped, thanks to timely warning. 

The year 1635 saw at Jamestown the first American 
revolutionary movement. The people, tired of Governor 
Harvey's misrule, " thrust him out " of office and shipped 
him to England. 

Years of quick growth, but full of interest, followed 
- — then, in the spring of 1652, the loyal Virginians as- 
sembled at Jamestown to defend the rights of King Charles, 
but were forced to surrender, on easy terms, to the Parlia- 
ment fleet. 

It was at Jamestown, too, that the most dramatic scenes 
of the famous Bacon's Rebellion were enacted in 1676, 
when the town was burned, leaving only the ruined church 
tower standing. A final burning of the State House, in 
1698, caused the removal of the Colonial government to 
Williamsburg. 

After " James City " ceased to be even a village, and 
most of its site became the property of one family, Travis, 
it still retained its right to send a member to the House of 



6 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Burgesses, a privilege not taken away until the formation 
of the State in 1776. The Mr. Travis of the day was the 
returning officer, and the only voter and he, or his nominee, 
the member. A member of Congress who once heard of 
this on a visit to Jamestown said he now understood why 
the place had once been called " Earth's only paradise." 

Still retaining its privileges as a town- — though only a 
town in name — Jamestown was long without a history. 
Cornwallis camped there June 4-9, 1781, and on June 6, 
gave Lafayette a beating. In September, 1781, the first 
French troops, arriving in Virginia for the Yorktown cam- 
paign, landed at Jamestown. 

In 1861, the Confederate fort which adds much of pic- 
turesqueness to this historic spot was built, by order of 
General Robert E. Lee. 

About a quarter of a mile below the church tower, upon 
a level grass plot, stand the ruins of a Colonial mansion 
known as the Ambler House. This house was built some 
time in the latter part of the eighteenth century by the 
Huguenot, Edward Jacqueline, a member of the House of 
Burgesses and a large land holder at Jamestown. From 
him the house passed to his descendants of the well-known 
Ambler family, and continued in their possession until the 
first part of the nineteenth century, when it was sold. It 
has since frequently changed hands and has been three 
times burned, though the massive old walls still stand firm. 

Upon May 3, 1893, Mr. and Mrs. Edward E. Barney, 
then owners of Jamestown Island, moved by a broad and 
generous spirit of patriotism, presented the twenty-two 
and a half acres of land upon which are the tower, church- 
yard and Confederate fort to the Association for the Pres- 
ervation of Virginia Antiquities. 1 

1 See also Yonge, The Site of Old " James Towne^ 1607-1698. 
A Brief Historical and Topographical Sketch of the First Ameri- 
can Metropolis. Richmond: 1907. This monograph was pub- 
lished serially in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biog- 
raphy, xi, 257-276, 393-414; xii, 33-54, 113-133. 




Copyright, 1901, by Robert A. Lancaster, Jr. 

FOUNDATIONS OF OLD JAMESTOWN CHURCH 



■HH^^HHHHBH^Hi 




JAMESTOWN 9 

Through the efforts of this organization, the United 
States Government has plaeed a splendid sea-wall along 
the shore of the island exposed to the encroachment of the 
river, which had already made serious inroads. In 1901 
excavations at the rear of the tower brought to light the 
foundations, brick aisles and chancel of the church, and 
some exceedingly interesting tombs. A most interesting 
feature of the " excavations " is a small wall which may be 
seen, in the illustration of the foundations of the church, 
immediately inside the outer right-hand larger wall. This 
smaller wall is in all probability a part of the foundation of 
the earliest church on this site and hence of the building in 
which sat the first " Assembly of the representatives of 
the People " called together in the New World. In order 
to protect these relics from the weather, and as a memorial 
to the first settlers, the National Society of the Colonial 
Dames of America has restored the outer walls of the 
church building, in part, over the original foundations. 
Other excavations, in 1903, unearthed the foundation of a 
block of five or six connected buildings, including those of 
the State House burned by Bacon, in 1676. 

Many interesting memorials have been placed at James- 
town in honor of the year 1907. Among these is a granite 
shaft, erected by the United States Government; stately 
entrance gates by the Colonial Dames of America, — a dif- 
ferent organization from the one which restored the church, 
— a bronze statue of Captain John Smith by Mr. and Mrs. 
Joseph Bryan ; a rest house — patterned after the Malvern 
Hill Mansion — by the Daughters of the American Revo- 
lution; ornamental fountain by the Massachusetts Society 
of Colonial Wars; a monument to the first House of Bur- 
gesses, by the Norfolk branch of the Association for the 
Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. 

An improvement which might have saved many lives in 
the early days of storm and stress, if it only could have been 
made three hundred years ago, is a fine artesian well which 
supplies the island with a generous amount of pure, spark- 
ling and delicious water. 



10 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

WILLIAMSBURG 

A straggling, mile-long " city," with eighteenth century 
houses and shady streets and here and there open spaces 
of greensward where trees have plenty of room to grow 
and young children to play; a city dominated by a vener- 
able church with ivied walls and white spire, within a high- 
walled, mossy graveyard ; and by a venerable college within 
a wide green campus; a village out of an old story book! 
On a June day the gardens are overflowing with bloom 
and sweet odors, and the music of singing birds, and cows 
browse, blissful and unafraid, upon the grass and butter- 
cups that the inhabitants with rare sense of the fitness of 
things allow to spring unrebuked in the streets. 

Such is Williamsburg. 

After the destruction of Jamestown it was decided to 
remove the seat of government of Virginia to a situation 
less popular with malaria and mosquitoes. The site chosen 
was the Middle Plantation, a little village upon high ground 
some seven miles back from Jamestown and the river. Its 
name was changed forthwith to Williamsburg after the 
reigning king of England and Virginia. The first plan 
was to lay out the streets to form a monogram of the letters 
W and M, the initials of their majesties William and Mary, 
but this was abandoned. Instead, Duke of Gloucester 
Street and its parallel thoroughfares were intersected at 
right angles by other highways bearing names suggestive 
of royalty and state. Along these streets many of the 
houses, where the lights of other days lived and moved and 
had their being, may still be found. 

The Capitol and Governor's Palace have disappeared, 
but the site of the former is preserved; the Palace Green 
is the Palace Green still, and the college and the church 
still carry on the good works for which they were originally 
designed. 

WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE 

In the midst of its shady campus stands William and 
Mary, looking straight up the Duke of Gloucester Street, 
which was originally closed at the opposite end by the 



WILLIAMSBURG 13 

Capitol building and grounds. It is built after the favorite 
Colonial manner, of red brick with glazed " headers," and 
with a triple-arched brick porch and a white cupola. Some 
distance in the foreground, upon the main walk, is a white 
marble statue of Norborne Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt 
1718-1770), Governor-in-chief of Virginia 1768 to 1770, 
with a high-flown inscription. 

William and Mary was the first American college save 
one, the first to have chairs of Law, Political Economy, 
Modern Languages and History, the first to establish 
elective and honor systems and class lectures and to award 
medals, and its Phi Beta Kappa was the first Greek letter 
fraternity in the United States. 

It was through the untiring efforts of the Reverend 
James Blair, D.D. (1655-1743) , Rector of Bruton Parish, 
that the College Charter was granted, in 1693, by their 
gracious majesties whose names it bears: " that the Church 
in Virginia may be furnished with a seminary of Ministers 
of the Gospel, and that the youth may be piously educated 
in good letters and manners and that the Christian religion 
may be propagated among the Western Indians, to the 
glory of Almighty God." Sir Christopher Wren is be- 
lieved to have been the architect, and good Parson Blair 
was fittingly made its first president. 2 

Of this old college it has been said that " more illus- 
trious men, in proportion to the numbers educated there, 
have gone out to make it and themselves famous than from 
any other literary institution on this Continent." 

Presidents of the United States, judges, chancellors, 
statesmen and divines, warriors and gentlemen fill the 
rolls of its venerable record. General Washington was 
its first chancellor after the Revolution, and to name only 
a few of the distinguished sons of this Alma Mater, three 
presidents of the United States — Thomas Jefferson, 
James Monroe, John Tyler — were educated there, as were 

2 Motley, Life of Commissary James Blair (Johns Hopkins 
University Studies, Series xix, No. 10). 



14 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Chief Justice John Marshall; Peyton Randolph, first 
President of the Continental Congress ; Chancellor George 
Wythe, and Governor Edmund Randolph. 

He spake truly who declared, " Its name must ever be 
associated with the deeds of the great and good." 

The college library contains some treasures in the way 
of rare books and interesting'portraits. Many of the books 
were presents from the royal governors of Virginia and 
contain book plates bearing coats-of-arms of their donors. 

Among the rules of the college was one that no student 
should keep a race-horse, and another that drinking should 
be confined to the moderation that becomes a prudent and 
industrious student. A practical, if somewhat unique, offi- 
cer for the college was named on June 26, 1761, when it 
was " Resolved that Mrs. Foster be appointed stocking- 
mender in the college and that she be paid annually the 
sum of twelve pounds provided she furnish herself with 
lodging, diet, fire and candles." 

The college continued in successful operation until the 
Revolution, when a company of volunteers was raised 
among the students and commanded by some of the pro- 
fessors. When the James River peninsula became the seat 
of war the exercises were temporarily suspended and the 
buildings were occupied in succession by the troops of the 
British and allied armies. The college has been thrice 
destroyed by fire, — first in 1705, again not long before the 
War between the States and again during that conflict by 
Federal soldiers, — but the Colonial builders laid their mas- 
sive brick-work to stand, and it has, each time, been restored 
within the same walls. 

THE BRAFFERTON BUILDING 
WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE 

Upon the college green to the right of the main build- 
ing stands the commodious and substantial building known 
as the BrafFerton, the first Indian School of any conse- 
quence in America. The Honorable Robert Boyle, of 



WILLIAMSBURG 15 

England, who died in 1691, directed in his will that his 
executors should apply his personal estate to such chari- 
table and pious uses as they, in their discretion, should see 
fit. The fund was invested in an English estate called 
Brafferton, and the rents, subject to ninety pounds given 
to Harvard University, were paid the President and pro- 
fessors of William and Mary for the purpose of establish- 
ing and maintaining a department for Indians. The result 
was the Brafferton, where Indian youths were supported 
and taught until the Revolution. 

The Brafferton is now used as one of the college dormi- 
tories. 

THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE 
WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE 

To the left of the college and immediately across the 
campus from the Brafferton is a dignified mansion built, 
like the college and the Brafferton, of dark red brick with 
glazed " headers " and, like the Brafferton, too, in plan, 
with the addition of the square, pillared porch. It was 
built in 1732 and as the home of a long succession of hon- 
ored presidents of William and Mary has enjoyed a rich 
social history. It has its place in war history as well, for 
Lord Cornwallis made it his headquarters not long before 
the Yorktown campaign. It was also occupied by the 
French troops at the time of the siege of Yorktown and by 
them was accidentally burned, but was rebuilt at the cost 
— tradition says — of the private purse of King Louis XVI. 

THE BLAIR HOUSE 

Passing from the college grounds into Duke of 
Gloucester Street, a few steps bring you to a long, low, 
white frame cottage, with one story and a dormer and with 
two street entrances, a short distance apart, each of which 
is reached by worn white marble steps. 

Modest as this homestead looks, it was the residence 
of two very distinguished men — John Blair (1686-1771), 



16 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

President of the Council of State and Acting Governor of 
Virginia, and his son, John Blair (died, 1800), Justice 
of the United States Supreme Court. 3 




BLAIR HOUSE, WILLIAMSBURG 



BRUTON CHURCH 



Foot-worn stone steps lead to a heavy iron gate set in 
a wall of checkered brick-work. The gate gives entrance 
to the old town's Holy of Holies — Bruton Parish Church 
and Churchyard. The green " God's acre " is filled with 
tombstones, many of them bearing arms and interesting 
epitaphs in English or Latin. The old sanctuary is built 
in the shape of a Roman cross, with a square entrance 
tower, of the familiar dull red and glazed brick. The tower 
is surmounted by a white wooden steeple from one side of 
which the town clock, which tradition says was formerly 
in the Capitol, keeps a watchful eye upon the town. The 

3 Blair family : William and Mary College Quarterly Historical 
Magazine, v, p. 279 ; Horner, The History of the Blair, Banister 
and Braxton Families (Philadelphia, 1898). 



WILLIAMSBURG 



17 



bell, which both cries the hours with silvery sound and 
calls the people to church, hears the inscription, " The gift 
of James Tarpley in Bruton Parish, 17(51. " 

Bruton has heen longer in continuous use than any 
other Episcopal church in America. The parish was 
established when Williamsburg was still Middle Plantation 
and antedates College, Capitol and Palace. The first 




BRUTON CHURCH, WILLIAMSBURG 



church was doubtless of wood, but in 1676 a brick one was 
built upon " land sufficient for the Church and Church- 
yard " given by Colonel John Page — first of the Page 
family in Virginia — who also subscribed " twenty pounds 
sterling " to the building fund. 

Upon October 1, 1706, " The vestry, considering ye 
great charge ye parish hath been at for ye repairing of ye 
Church, and how bad a condition it still is in," ordered that 
" twenty thousand pounds of tobacco be levied this year for 



18 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

and towards building a new church." This (the present) 
building was finished in 1715 and stands upon the original 
site. It was said to have been " adorned as the best Churches 
in London." There were the high-back pews and tall 
pulpit of the time. The Governor's pew was slightly ele- 
vated from the main floor and over it stretched a silken 
canopy around which the Governor's name was wrought 
in letters of gold. In this pew splendidly worshipped the 
royal governors, Nicholson, Jennings, Spotswood, Drys- 
dale, Gooch, Dinwiddie, Fauquier, Lord Botetourt and 
Lord Dunmore, while in other pews have sat burgesses 
and councillors, patriots, scholars and statesmen without 
number. To name only the greatest in this remarkable 
galaxy — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick 
Henry, George Mason, and John Marshall all bowed the 
knee in this storied temple. 

In 1718 leave was given the students of William and 
Mary College to use the west gallery and to put a door with 
a lock and key to the stairs of said gallery, " the sexton to 
keep the key." In this gallery, while students at William 
and Mary, sat Peyton Randolph (1722-1775), President 
of the Continental Congress, and George Wythe (1726- 
1806) , signer of the Declaration of Independence. 

In 1721, it was ordered that a gallery be built in the 
south side of the church " for the boys of the parish." 

In 1753, it was ordered that half of the south gallery 
be appropriated to the college students, and here, while 
students, sat Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Chief 
Justice Marshall, Governor Edmund Randolph, President 
John Tyler, and General Winfield Scott. 

The north gallery was reserved for colored servants and 
was entered by a stairway from outside. 

In 1755, it was ordered that a loft be built for the organ 
which had been brought from England, and upon which 
Mr. Peter Pelham was appointed to play. 

Old Bruton is the fortunate possessor of three notable 
services of Communion silver, the most interesting of which 



WILLIAMSBURG 19 

was brought from Jamestown. It consists of a chalice, 
paten and alms-basin presented to Jamestown Church by 
Francis Moryson, Acting Governor of Virginia. The 
chalice and paten are inscribed: " Mixe not holy things 
with profane. Ex dono Francisci Morrison Armigeri anno 
Domi 1661," and the basin with arms, and " For the use of 
James City Parish Church." The " Queene Anne Ser- 
vice " is an exquisitely chased, two-handled cup and cover, 
and a paten, and bears arms. The " King George Service " 
consists of a flagon chalice and alms-basin. Each piece 
bears the royal arms and initials G III R, and the motto, 
" Honi soit qui mal y pense." 

King Edward VII in 1907 gave a Bible and President 
Roosevelt a lectern for the Bible to rest upon, to this 
historic church, which has been beautifully and reverently 
restored to as nearly as possible its appearance in the days 
when it was the State Church of England's first colony in 
America. 

THE PALACE GREEN 

Beyond the church stretches the "Palace Green " where 
stood the Governor's palace, said to have been a " mag- 
nificent structure . . . finished and beautiful with gates, 
fine gardens, offices, walks, a fine canal, orchards, etc." 
And " likewise the ornamental addition of a good cupola or 
lantern, illuminating most of the town upon birth nights 
and other nights of occasional rejoicing." 

The Palace was the very centre of social and ceremoni- 
ous life in Colonial Virginia. It was there that the painted 
and powdered belles and beaux displayed to the best ad- 
vantage their velvets and brocades, their jewelled buckles 
and falls of rich lace and also their accomplishments in the 
way of ornate manners and speech; there the minuet and 
the more lively country dances occupied the hours twixt 
candle-light and dawn when the birthday of his honor, the 
Governor of Virginia, or his Majesty, the King of Eng- 
land, was being celebrated, and upon other holidays. 



20 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 
WYTHE HOUSE 

The square brick mansion over-run with ivy and Vir- 
ginia creeper hard by the church was the home of the dis- 
tinguished Revolutionary patriot and signer of the Dec- 
laration of Independence, George Wythe (1726-1806) . 4 
This house has figured in both history and fiction, for just 
before the Yorktown campaign General Washington took 
it for his headquarters and in recent times Miss Ellen 




WYTHE HOUSE, WILLIAMSBURG 



Glasgow made use of it as the home of Judge Bassett, one 
of the chief characters of her novel, The Voice of the 
People. 

The Wythe House can boast of no less than three 
ghosts. Whoever sleeps in what was Judge Wythe's bed- 
room upon the night of the 8th of June is suddenly awak- 
ened by the touch of a cold hand upon his brow ; the shadow 
of General Washington walks in the wide hall on moon- 
light nights, and, on occasion, a glimpse of the lovely Mrs. 

4 Wythe family: William and Mary Quarterly, ii, 69. 



WILLIAMSBURG 



21 



Skipwith, who was Miss Elizabeth Byrd, of k ' Westover," 
may be had, as she descends the broad, dark stairs. 

SAUNDERS HOUSE 

The picturesque mansion with the two-storied, pillared 
porch, just beyond the Wythe House, is the Saunders 
House — formerly the home of Mr. Robert Saunders ' (a 
prominent gentleman of Williamsburg and a President of 




SAUNDERS HOUSE, WILLIAMSBURG 

William and Mary College) and his wife, who was Lucy 
Page, the youngest of the twenty children of Governor 
John Page. 

About the year 1752 this house was occupied by Gov- 
ernor Robert Dinwiddie while the Palace was undergoing 
repairs. 

PAGE HOUSE 

Just across Palace Green from the Saunders House 
is the little old white frame, dormer-windowed cottage 
which was the town house of Governor John Page, of 

5 Saunders family : William and Mary Quarterly, xiv, p. 145 
et seq. 



22 



VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 



" Rosewell." Hard by is the site of the old theatre which 
furnished Williamsburg folk with the diversion of the play. 
Both homestead and theatre figure conspicuously in Miss 
Mary Johnston's novel " Audrey," and since the publica- 
tion of that book the cottage has been pointed out to 
visitors as " Audrey's house." Its panelled hall and parlor 
and unique stairway make it as quaint within as without, 
and one of the tiny window-panes in the parlor gives it a 




PAGE HOUSE, WILLIAMSBURG 



still further interest. Upon this pane a diamond from the 
finger of some fair one of over a century ago has scratched, 
so plainly that it may still be easily read, the initials " T. B." 
and the date " 1790 November 23," followed by the words, 
" O fatal day." The identity of " T. B." and the reason 
why November 23, 1790, was a " fatal day " are alike 
wrapped in mystery, which is fortunate, since it grants 
every reader of the haunting inscription liberty to give free 
rein to imagination and make his own story. 



WILLIAMSBURG 23 

THE COURT HOUSE AND GREEN 

Divided from the Palaee Green by the street named for 
Lord Dnnmore is Court Green, a hroad grassy space, 
shaded by fine old trees. 

Within it, upon the Duke of Gloucester Street side, 
stands the Court House, built in 1769, and upon it look a 
number of picturesque and charming old homesteads. 




COURT HOUSE, WILLIAMSBURG 

COURT GREEN HOUSES 

TUCKER HOUSE 

Facing the Court Green on its north side is a large, 
rambling, frame house which was the home of two mem- 
bers of a distinguished Virginia family, Judges St. George 
and Nathaniel Beverley Tucker. 6 

Beyond the Tucker House, on the north side of the 

Tucker family: The Cr'tic (Richmond, Va.), Sept. 14, 1889. 



24 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

street named for Governor Nicholson, which passes under 
a double row of large trees, several commodious frame 




TUCKER HOUSE, WILLIAMSBURG 




COLEMAN HOUSE, WILLIAMSBURG 



homesteads of the Colonial period, with large gardens lying 
behind them, look upon the Court Green. 



WILLIAMSBURG 



%o 



On the right-hand side of the cross street, as one turns 
to go to the station, is the house in which General Lafayette 
was entertained when he visited the Colonial eapital in 
1824. 

COLEMAN HOUSE 

A hloek further down Nicholson Street is to he noticed 
one of the most interesting of the old Williamsburg homes. 
The house is rich in heirlooms of the Tucker and Randolph 
families, and the terraced garden is beautiful and fragrant 
in summer with roses in endless variety, old-fashioned 
flowering shrubs, hyacinths and tulips, violets and lilies, 
great peonies — pink and white, each single blossom a 
bouquet. 

THE POWDER HORN 

Across Duke of Gloucester Street from the Court 
Green, but some distance back, stands one of the most 




OLD POWDER HORN AT WILLIAMSISl RG 



interesting relics in America — the old Powder Horn. This 
curious looking little octagon-shaped house, with its high 



26 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

peaked roof, was built in 1714, during Governor Spots- 
wood's administration, to hold the Colony's munitions of 
war, and was designed by the Governor himself. Its walls 
are strong and thick, and to add to its security it was 
formerly enclosed by a thick and high outer wall, running 
parallel to its eight sides. 

It was from the Powder Horn that Lord Dunmore 
secretly removed the gunpowder for which Patrick Henry, 
at the head of his Hanover troops, made him pay. This 
incident, it will be remembered, resulted in Dunmore's 
flight from the capital and the patriotic Virginians putting 
themselves on record in a pledge to defend Virginia " or 
any sister colony " —fervently closing with, " God save the 
liberties of America." 

Since the Revolution the Powder Horn has had a check- 
ered history — serving in turn as a Baptist Church, a danc- 
ing school and a stable. During the War between the 
States the Confederates used it for its original purpose — a 
powder magazine and armory. 

It is now the property of the Association for the Pres- 
ervation of Virginia Antiquities, which has made it a 
museum of relics of Virginia's past. 

RALEIGH TAVERN 

From the Powder Horn on to the old Capitol grounds 
at the eastern end of the street may be seen numerous 
Colonial dwellings — though the open lots and new build- 
ings show where many others have been destroyed by fire. 
The site of the most notable of these, Raleigh Tavern, has 
been recently marked by the Virginia Society of the 
Colonial Dames of America with a tablet. 

This most famous of Colonial " guest houses " was a 
large, square, wooden building, two stories high, with eight 
dormer windows on each of its four sides. In a small 
portico over the Duke of Gloucester Street entrance stood, 
upon a pedestal which is now one of the relics of the Powder 
Horn Museum, a leaden bust of Sir Walter Raleigh. In 
1742, the tavern was owned by John Blair, nephew of the 



WILLIAMSBURG 



27 



Commissary, and kept by one Henry Wetherburn. Mine 
host Wetherburn was evidently an expert mixer of the cup 
that cheers, if we may take a hint from the Goochland 
County records, from which we learn that William 
Randolph, of Tnckahoe, sold to his friend, Peter Jefferson 
— the father of Thomas Jefferson — 2(H) acres of land for 




RALEIGH TAVERN, WILLIAMSBURG, AND THE APOLLO ROOM 

" Henry Wetherburn's biggest bowl of Arrack punch." 
The deed was duly recorded in Goochland and may be 
seen there to-day. 

The chief glory of the Raleigh was a large banqueting 
hall with deep fireplaces at each end and carved wainscot- 
ing, named after an apartment in London Tavern, the 
" Apollo Room." The Virginia Gazette contains many 



28 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

allusions to entertainments and gatherings in this room, 
and it has been said that the Apollo " witnessed probably 
more scenes of brilliant festivity and political excitement 
than any other single apartment in North America." 
Thomas Jefferson was one of the gallants who danced at 
the balls held there. In a letter written in 1764 to his chum 
John Page, — afterward Governor of Virginia, — he wrote 
of having been " last night as merry as agreeable company 
and dancing with Belinda in the Apollo " could make him. 
But alas, he was not always so " merry " in the Apollo, for 
it was during a ball there that his " Belinda," as he elected 
to call the fair Rebecca Bur well, gave him the mitten. 

The Gazette mentions a " genteele dinner " given by 
Peyton Randolph at the Raleigh, when " many loyal and 
patriotic toasts were drank, and the afternoon spent with 
cheerfulness and decorum." This was in 1768, and when, 
in the same year, Lord Botetourt came to be Governor of 
Virginia, he supped in state at the Raleigh, with the gentle- 
men of his Council. 

During the days immediately preceding the Revolution 
the Raleigh became a favorite meeting place of the patriots. 
In 1773, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, the Lees, and 
a few others were accustomed to meet in a private room 
there, to consult on state affairs. In consequence of an 
agreement made there, Dabney Carr introduced in the 
House of Burgesses, on March 12 of that year, the resolu- 
tions for Inter-Colonial Committees of Correspondence. 

When, in 1774, Lord Dunmore dissolved the Assembly 
that had protested against the shutting up of Boston Har- 
bor and proclaimed June 1 a day of fast, it was to the 
Apollo Room that the indignant Burgesses adjourned and 
there drew up the famous resolution against the use of tea 
and other East Indian products. 

Upon December 5, 1776, the Phi Beta Kappa — the 
first Greek letter society formed in America — was organ- 
ized, by the students of William and Mary College, in the 
Apollo Room at the Raleigh. 



WILLIAMSBURG 29 

This truly historic old tavern continued to be a popular 
place for banquets, assemblies, balls and political meetings 
until the year 1859, when, by unhappy accident, it was 
laid in ashes. 

THE PARADISE HOUSE 

On the left-hand side of Duke of Gloucester Street, 
not far below the Peninsula Hotel, may be seen a quaint 
brick dwelling known as the Paradise House. 

When Philip Ludwell III (1716-1767) of Green- 
spring, Virginia, died in London — in which city he had 
taken up his abode — he left there two daughters, one of 
whom, Lucy, married, in 1769, John Paradise, Esq., 7 . . . 
a gentleman well known in literary circles in London. He 
and his wife were identified with Doctor Johnson's famous 
set of literary lights and wits. Doctor Johnson sometimes 
dined with them and they are mentioned in " Bos well " 
and in Burney's Memoirs. 

After her husband's death Madam Paradise returned 
to Virginia and was a personage in the society of Williams- 
burg, where she made her home, until her death in 1814. 
Among the articles of furniture which she brought over 
was the mahogany dining-table at which Johnson had been 
entertained, and which is still in Williamsburg. 

It is probable that the house was formerly owned by 
Madam Paradise's father. 

THE CARTER HOUSE 

On the oj}posite side of the street from the Paradise 
House and somewhat farther down, is the many-dormered, 
white frame dwelling which was the town house of Robert 
Carter (1728-1804) of Nomini Hall, Westmoreland 
County, who was long a member of the Colonial Council 
and was familiarly known as " Councillor Carter." 

Present-day readers have made the acquaintance of 

7 There is an interesting note on Paradise in William and Mar// 
Quarterly, vi, 58. 



30 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Councillor Carter and his family and friends through the 
exceedingly quaint and delightful journal of Philip Vickers 
Fithian 8 — a tutor at Nomini just before the Revolution. 




CARTER HOCSE, WILLIAMSBl fRG 



THE OLD CAPITOL AND CLERK'S OFFICE 

All that is left of that " noble, beautiful and com- 
modious pile," the Capitol, within whose walls so much 
history, not only of Virginia but of America, was made, 
are the brick foundations lying across the foot of Duke of 
Gloucester Street and rising but little above the grass that 
fills the space between them with friendly green. They 
show the building to have been a large H-shaped structure, 
lying sideways to the street. The rear side was the House 
of Burgesses. The site is now the property of the Asso- 
ciation for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, which 

8 Williams, Philip Vickers Fithian, Journal and Letters, 1767- 
177 h, Princeton, 1900. 



WILLIAMSBURG 31 

has placed upon it a granite boulder, bearing a bronze 
tablet appropriately inscribed, and capped the old brick- 
work with concrete, to prevent further decay. 

Across Capitol Street on the left is a stout brick build- 
ing, now part of a dwelling, but formerly the office of the 
Clerk of the House of Burgesses, or General Court. 

GARRETT HOUSE 

Following Capitol Street a short distance, still to the 
left, brings to view a long, rambling, white house in a shady, 
green lawn, which makes a charming picture of that inter- 
esting type of old-time Virginia homestead which grew 
with the needs of the family. The oldest part of this house 
was built by John Coke, a son of the distinguished family 
of Coke of Trusley and an ancestor of the late Senator 
Coke, of Texas. An extremely quaint stair-rail is one of 
the interesting interior details of this end of the house. 

This, like many other of the Williamsburg homes, con- 
tains a fascinating collection of heirlooms — rare old mahog- 
any, pictures, silver, and the like. Upon the parlor walls 
hangs, in a perfect state of preservation, the paper with 
the old-fashioned hunting-scene pattern which was the first 
wall-paper ever brought to Williamsburg. 

BASSETT HALL 

To the right of Capitol Street, on Francis Street — 
which is parallel with Duke of Gloucester — stands a large 
frame house, with square Colonial porches, in the midst of 
a lovely old flower garden. This is Bassett Hall, once the 
town home of the Bassett family of New Kent County. 1 ' 
Mrs. Bassett and Mrs. Washington ( who were Dandridges) 
were sisters, and General Washington was often enter- 
tained at Bassett Hall. 

Bassett family : Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 
iv, 162; vii, 399; and Keith, The Ancestry of Benjamin Harrison 
. . . and Notes on Families Related, Philadelphia, 1893, pp. 27-33. 



32 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

It is said that the sweet Irish singer, Tom Moore, 
while a guest here composed his beautiful poem " To the 
Firefly " — suggested by the " firefly lamps " that sparkled 
among the flowers and shrubbery as he sat on the porch 
in the evening. 

Bassett Hall was, in 1841, the home of President John 
Tyler. 

RANDOLPH HOUSE 

Just beyond Bassett Hall, on the same street, is the 
picturesque old homestead of Peyton Randolph, Attorney 
General of Virginia, Speaker of* the House of Burgesses, 
and first President of the Continental Congress. 

MASONIC TEMPLE 

Still farther up Francis Street is a plain and now 
shabby frame house once used for Masonic meetings. 
Within this modest " Temple " was organized the first 
Grand Lodge of Masons in the Old Dominion. 

GARY HOUSE 

Turning into England Street, the tourist finds himself 
at the gate of a long, white, dormer-windowed cottage, in a 
green yard, with great shade-trees screening its square 
Colonial porch from the gaze of the over-curious. 

This was the home of the lovely Cary sisters — Sarah 
and Mary 10 — where George Washington and George 
Fairfax did a- wooing go ; Fairfax successfully, and Wash- 
ington in vain. 

TAZEWELL HALL 

On England Street stands an old frame mansion of 
Colonial type. Its exterior is plain, but within it is very 
handsome* and the walls of its stately hall and rooms are 
made beautiful with carved mahogany panelling. 

10 Cary family : The Critic (Richmond, Va.), April 26, May 10 
and 2-i, 1890. 



WILLIAMSBURG 



33 



This is Tazewell Hall, the home of Sir John Randolph 
(1693-1737) — one of the most distinguished lawyers of 
Colonial Virginia and Speaker of the House of Burgesses 
— and of his grandson Edmund Randolph (17-53-1813), 
Governor of Virginia and Secretary of State of the United 
States. 

The marriage, in 1776, of the Master of Tazewell Hall 
was announced in the Virginia Gazette in the following 
fashion: 




TAZEWELL HALL, WILLIAMSBURG 



" Edmund Randolph, Esq., Attorney General of Vir- 
ginia, to Miss Betsy Nicholas, 11 a young lady whose amiable 
sweetness of disposition, joined with the finest intellectual 
accomplishments, cannot fail of rendering the worthy man 
of her choice completely happy." 



11 Nicholas family: The Critic (Richmond, Va.), August 30, 
1890. 



34 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

YORKTOWN 

About nine miles distant from Williamsburg, upon a 
hill overlooking beautiful but now empty York River 
harbor, lies all that is left of Yorktown. This famous little 
town, built in 1691, was the successor of " York Planta- 
tion," which had already had an interesting history. It 
was never more than a village in size, but owing to its 
situation did a great shipping business for nearly a hundred 
years. An Englishman who had visited it published his 
impressions in the London Magazine, in 1764. He wrote: 

" Yorktown ... is situated on a rising ground, gently 
descending every way into a valley, and tho' but strag- 
glingly built, yet makes no inconsiderable figure. You 
perceive a great air of opulence amongst the inhabitants 
who have (some of them) built themselves houses equal 
in magnificence to many of our superb ones at St. James, 
as those of Mr. Lightfoot, Nelson, etc., almost every con- 
siderable man keeps an equipage though they have no 
concern about the different colours of their coach horses, 
driving frequently black, white and chestnut in the same 
harness . . . the most considerable houses are brick, some 
handsome ones of wood — all built in the modern taste — 
and the lesser sort of plaster. There are some very pretty 
garden spots in the town; and the avenues leading to 
Williamsburg, Norfolk, etc., are prodigiously agreeable. 
The roads are . . . infinitely superior to most in Eng- 
land. The country surrounding is thickly overspread with 
plantations, and the planters live in a manner equal to men 
of the best fortune." 

In achieving fame Yorktown bade farewell to fortune, 
for its prosperous career came to a sudden end with the 
Revolution; but perhaps it finds consolation in a secure 
place in history and the superb monument erected, in 1881, 
by the United States Government. 

Traces of earthworks raised by the British still remain, 
though covered and altered in many places by the later 
Confederate fortifications. 







NELSON HOUSE, YORKTOWN 




CUSTOM HOl'SK. YORKTOWN 



YORKTOWN 37 

THE CUSTOM HOUSE 

The oldest brick building now standing in Vorktown 
is the Custom House, built in 1715. This interesting relic 
— the first Custom House in the United States — escaped 
serious damage during the famous siege. 

THE NELSON HOUSE 

Upon the brow of the hill, facing the river, a short 
distance away from the Custom House stands the pictu- 
resque old Nelson House. The massiveness of this com- 
modious brick mansion, and its situation upon a terrace 
some distance above the street and within an old-fashioned 
walled garden whose entrance gates are guarded on each 
side by tall, thick box trees, give it an air of dignified se- 
clusion and security. Indoors, the spacious rooms, with 
their deep window-seats and handsome wainscoting, pro- 
duce a charming effect, while the interest that a touch of 
the mysterious gives is added by a hidden stairway leading 
to the garret, to which a secret panel in the dining-room 
woodwork gives entrance. 

As the home of Thomas Nelson ( 1738-1789), 12 Gov- 
ernor of Virginia, Signer of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence and Major General in the Revolutionary Army, and 
as the headquarters of Lord Cornwallis during the siege 
this house is the most historic as well as the most attractive 
now standing in Yorktown. It suffered a good deal of 
damage during the siege and a cannon ball embedded in 
the brick-work still bears witness to the bombardment, 
during which the patriotic General Nelson said to General 
Lafayette, " Spare no particle of my property so long as 
it affords comfort or shelter to the enemies of my country." 

The site of the mansion of " Secretary " Nelson, uncle 
of General Nelson, which was destroyed during the siege 

12 Nelson family: See Page, Genealogy of the Page Family, 
p. 155 et seq. Interesting results from an investigation of the 
English ancestry of the Nelson family are given in Virginia 
Magazine of History and Biography, xiii, pp. 402-403 ; xvii, 
pp. 187-188. 



38 



VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 



is still pointed out. " Secretary " Nelson was brought out 
of Yorktown under a flag of truce and congratulated the 
American officers upon the havoc their bombardment was 
playing upon his own house. 

THE CHURCH 

In the churchyard a short distance away from the 
Nelson House may be seen the Nelson tombs. The church 
where this patriotic family worshipped and which was 
built in 1697 was burned in 1814, but was replaced by a 
small stone-marle building on the original site. The old 
bell of the earlier church bearing the inscription, " County 
of York, Virginia, 1725," was preserved and is still in use. 

THE MOORE HOUSE 

About three-quarters of a mile out of Yorktown, upon 
" Temple Farm," stands the " Moore House " where the 




MiHiRK HOUSE, NEAR YORKTOWN 



surrender of Cornwallis was drawn up and signed. The 
room made forever famous by this epoch-maidng agree- 
ment is still pointed out. The house is a very old one and 
is probably part of the residence of Colonel George Ludlow 



YORKTOWN 



39 



(1596-1656), member of the Colonial Council, who was a 
kinsman of the English regicide, Edmund Ludlow, and is 
mentioned by him in his memoirs. Standing within a green 
lawn on a bold bluff of York River, the long, dormer- 
window farm-house makes a charming picture. 

An interesting bit of history connected with " Temple 
Farm " is found in the fact that just about this site stood, 
more than a hundred years before the Revolution, the home 
of Captain Nicholas Martain (1591-1657), ancestor of 
General Washington and General Nelson and one of the 
leading spirits in the first rebellion against tyranny in 
Virginia, when, in 1634, the Colonists "thrust" the" un- 
popular Governor, Sir John Harvey, out of office and 
shipped him to England. 

Another historic spot near Yorktown is the field where 
Lord Cornwallis's men laid down their arms. 




RINGFIELD HOUSE, YORK COUNTY 

RINGFIELD 

The most historic spot on York River — Yorktown — 
has been noticed. The only other place on that side of the 
river to be represented here is Ringfield, lying between the 



40 



VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 



forks of King's Creek and Felgate's Creek. This planta- 
tion was first patented by Captain Robert Felgate, a 
prominent ship-captain of London, who made his will in 
1640, leaving his estate to his brother, William Felgate, 
a skinner of London. At Felgate's death his widow, Mary, 
married (in 1660) Captain John Underbill, Jr., from the 
City of Worcester, England, from whom the Felgate plan- 
tation passed to Joseph Ring, a prominent planter, who 
probably built the house still standing. Since his time the 
place has been known as Ringfield. There were long to 
be seen there two old tombs of members of the Ring family, 
one having a mutilated coat-of-arms, but they have been 
lately removed to the old Bruton Churchyard, Williams- 
burg. 

In about 1772, Ringfield belonged to Colonel Landon 
Carter (1710-1778) of Sabine Hall, Richmond County. 




PORTO BELLO, NEAR WILLIAMSBURG 

PORTO BELLO 

Not far from Williamsburg on the north side of Queen's 
Creek, near its mouth, is Porto Bello, which was bought 
by Lord Dunsmore, in 1773. He built the present house. 
It has since had many owners, and is now owned by 
Mr. T. R. Daley. 



PART II 

Hampton Roads and the Lower James 
st. pauls church, norfolk 

I^S St. Paul's Church was the only building left stand- 

/\ ing after the fire which during the Revolution 

/ % laid the town of Norfolk in ashes, it is, of course, 

-^- -^- the only Colonial building now to be found there. 

With its high-walled graveyard it makes the loveliest and 

most appealing spot in that city by the sea. 

The church, which was built in 1739, is in the shape of a 
cross, and is completely mantled in ivy, save where the 
green is trimmed away to show the cannon-ball lodged in 
the wall by a gun on the frigate Liverpool, during the 
bombardment of Norfolk by Lord Dunmore, on New 
Year's Day, 1776.* 

The Communion service was taken from the church 
by the British and carried to Scotland. 

THE MYERS HOUSE, NORFOLK 

The ivy-covered, brick dwelling now occupied by Mr. 
Barton Myers was built, in 1191, by Moses Myers, his 
great-grandfather. He was one of the most prominent 
ship owners and merchants of his day engaged in foreign 
trade, and was appointed by John Quincy Adams, Collec- 
tor of Customs for the Port in 1828. 

Five generations of the family have lived here. The 
house has always been noted for its hospitality and many of 
the most distinguished men who visited Norfolk were en- 
tertained within its hospitable walls, amongst them Henry 
Clay, who stayed here when he visited Norfolk during the 
Presidential campaign in 1844. 

President Roosevelt, with members of his Cabinet, and 
James Bryce, British Ambassador, with their wives, were 
entertained here on the occasion of the opening of the 
Jamestown Exposition, April, 1907, as the guests of Mr. 
Harry St. George Tucker, President of the Exposition. 

* See illustration, p. 43. 

41 



42 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

The American Architect and Building News, of Bos- 
ton, in its portfolio of the Georgian Period, Part IV, pub- 
lished in Boston, in 1900, says, " The house we have chosen 
for illustration is by far the most interesting example of 
Georgian work to be found in Norfolk." 

General Winfield Scott, on a visit to Norfolk, in 1850, 
was a guest here. His visit, and a description of the house 
was referred to in an article published by Mr. H. B. Bag- 
nail in the Ledger-Dispatch. 

ROLLESTON 

In the Dutch-roofed portion of the house here pre- 
sented we find all that is left of the habitation of one of 
Virginia's early settlers. In 1649 — the year Charles I 




ROLLESTON, PRINCESS ANNE COUNTY 



was beheaded with other disappointed Cavaliers — William 
Moseley arrived on our shores from Rotterdam, Holland, 
bringing with him his wife Susannah and sons Arthur and 
William, grants of land in Lynnhaven Parish on Broad 




ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, NORFOLK 




MYERS HOUSE, NORFOLK 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 45 

Creek, Lower Norfolk County, Virginia, a " Court Cal- 
lender," a " Coat of Arms," old family portraits, one of 
them painted in the reign of Henry II and the rest by 
Van Dyek, and family jewels of rare value, showing how 
Englishmen cling to their old traditions and belongings 
even when colonizing in the wilderness. In 1650, alas! we 
find Susannah Moseley forced to sell her jewels for " Cat- 
tell," the gems, irony of Fate! being purchased by Francis 
Yardley, son of the Colonial Governor and leader of the 
Cromwellian party in Virginia. 

Here in Lower Norfolk County, William Moseley 
built the house of our cut, calling it " Rolleston " after the 
Moseley seat, Rolleston Hall, in Staffordshire, England. 
These Virginia lands were escheated to the Commonwealth 
in the time of Cromwell, and, after the restoration of 
Charles II, were restored to the grandson of the emigrant, 
Colonel Edward Moseley, a man of great distinction in 
those parts, a member of the House of Burgesses, and one 
of Governor Spotswood's Knights of the Golden Horse- 
shoe. The house still stands, and until the end of the War 
between the States (1865) was occupied by his lineal 
descendants. 

THOROUGHGOOD HOUSE 

In the early days of our country's history, as far back 
indeed as 1621, there came to Virginia from Lynn, in Nor- 
folk, England, in the good ship Charles, a certain Adam 
Thoroughgood, who was destined to become, through his 
thrift and industry, a man of much distinction in the Col- 
ony. Perhaps, too, a strain of gentle blood, which flowed 
in him from a long line of English ancestors, enabled him 
to impress those early colonizers — an impression so last- 
ing that to this day their descendants around Lynnhaven 
and Norfolk, in Virginia, still revere his memory. 

He was the son of Thomas Thoroughgood, M.P., and 
brother of Sir John Thoroughgood, Knight of Kensing- 
ton, England, whom he mentions in his will, and it is stated 
in the patent for 5.350 acres of land granted him, that the 



46 



VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 



grant is made " at the especial recommendation of him 
from their Lordships and others of his Majesties most 
humble privy Councell." He settled first at " Kicotan,'' 
now Hampton, Virginia, but in 1634, when this land was 
granted him in the same shire, he removed to Back River, 
naming it " Norfolk " County, and its beautiful Bay, 
" Lynnhaven." Here he built the quaint house, the gable 




THOROUGHGOOD HOUSE, PRINCESS ANNE COUNTY 
Built about 1635 

end of which appears in our illustration, and so substantial 
was his work that now it still stands habitable and well pre- 
served, with its walls of three feet thickness, its queer old 
wainscoting reaching the ceiling about the chimney pieces, 
and its secret closets running from gable to gable in which 
to hide from the Indians. 

Here he amassed a large fortune, and rose to much 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 47 

distinction in the Colony, being, in 1637, a member of the 
Council (our Colonial House of Lords) with Governor 
Harvey. But in 1040, he is dead, cut down before his 
prime, still, having accomplished enough in his thirty- 
seven years of life to make dwellers in those parts nearly 
300 years later proud to claim descent from Captain Adam 
Thoroughgood. 




«**£?■ 



ii 






ST. JOHNS CHURCH, HAMPTON * 

ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, HAMPTON 

Across Hampton Roads from Norfolk is the still older 
town of Hampton, which, like Norfolk, has been destroyed 
by fire and rebuilt. During the War between the States, 
when the inhabitants set the torch to their own homes rather 
than let them give shelter to Northern soldiers, the mas- 
sive walls of St. John's were the only relics left of Colonial 
Hampton. 

There were churches in Hampton, which was first 
known by the name the Indians gave it, " Kicoughtan," 

* Picture from Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution, pub- 
lished 1850, vol. 2, p. 326. 



48 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

from a very early date, but St. John's was not built until 
1727. Like many of the Colonial churches it is cruciform 
and is surrounded by a graveyard filled with interesting 
old tombs. A number of these which were in existence in 
1861 disappeared during the war. 

St. John's possesses the oldest service of Communion 
silver in America. One of the pieces, a large cup, bears the 
inscription: " The Communion Cupp for St. Mary's 
Church in Smith Hundred, in Virginia," and the hall mark, 
1617. Smith's Hundred was one of the large land grants 
along the Chickahominy, and the Hampton silver evidently 
belonged originally to a church there — long since dis- 
appeared. 

An interesting window in St. John's is to the memory of 
Pocahontas, and was placed there by the Indian students 
of Hampton Normal School. 

Notable among the beauties of the churchyard are the 
fine old weeping willows that shade it with their fringe- 
like foliage. 




EASTERN SHORE CHAPEL, PRINCESS ANNE COUNTY 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 49 

EASTERN SHORE CHAPEL 

Soon after the opening of the earliest vestry hooks 
known to Bishop Meade is mention, in 172.5, of an Eastern 
Shore Chapel. The present building was erected in 17.54. 

OLD BRICK CHURCH, ISLE OF WIGHT 

Crossing again to the south side of James River, the 
traveller enters the county of Isle of Wight, whose chief 
interest is the Old Brick Church, some five miles from 
Smithfield.* 

The Old Brick Church is as unique as it is picturesque. 
Tradition has long insisted that it was built in 1632, and 
this seemed to be confirmed during its restoration, when, 
in the debris scattered about, two old bricks with the tra- 
ditional date baked into them were found. The zealous 
historian of the church has produced other strong argu- 
ments in favor of this date, in spite of which there are some 
who doubt. Whatever may be its exact age, it is certain 
that it was built early in the seventeenth century and it is 
the oldest brick Protestant church in the New World. A 
point of interest concerning it is that it was evidently of 
the same type as (and probably exactly like) the James- 
town Church, as the ruins of that historic sanctuary plainly 
show. These two were the only buttressed churches of the 
seventeenth century in America. 

Fortunately, the Old Brick Church, while suffering 
much from neglect in the past, has remained unchanged 
in all of its essential features. The square entrance-tower, 
the frame-work of the round-headed windows with their 
lancet lights and the great east window (though their 
glasses were destroyed) have been preserved. Within 
the last few years the church has been completely restored 
and many handsome memorials placed in the beautiful old 
window frames. 

* See illustration, p. 51. 
4 



50 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

BACON'S CASTLE 

Not many miles above the Old Brick Church, in the 
adjoining county of Surry, is Bacon's Castle, perhaps the 
oldest of the homesteads in the James River region. 
Though a spacious addition, with commodious " built in " 
porches, tells a story of a later time, the steep roof, massive 
walls and huge chimneys of the original building stamp it 
at once as early Colonial. The deep window-seats, wain- 
scoted walls and low ceilings, with their heavy oaken cross- 
beams, make the rooms exceedingly picturesque. In one 
instance the cross-beams are supported by a carved oak 
centre-post in the middle of the big room. 

Bacon's Castle was built by Arthur Allen, who came 
to Virginia from England in 1649. He married Alice 
Tucker and died in 1670, leaving the plantation with the 
brick house, said to have been built in 1660, to his son and 
heir, Major Arthur Allen, sometime Speaker of the Vir- 
ginia House of Burgesses. During Bacon's Rebellion the 
house of Major Allen, who was a friend of Governor 
Berkeley's, was seized, fortified and used as a stronghold 
by a party of Bacon's adherents, commanded by William 
Bookings* and was held for nearly four months. 

In the journal of the Master of a Ship, who was aiding 
Governor Berkeley in this part of the country, is this entry: 

" The guard at Allen's brick house we hear is run 
away." On the next day the writer records the occupation 
of the " fort," as he calls it. The records of Surry County 
show that on July 3, 1677, Major Arthur Allen sued Mr. 
Robert Burgess " for that during the late most Horrid 
Rebellion he with others did seize and keep garrison in 
the pit's house neare fower months (bearing the title of 
Lieutenant Commander-in-Chief next to William Rook- 
ings) ." From that time the house was known as Bacon's 
Castle. 

Major Allen died in 1710 and the estate passed to his 
son, Arthur, who died in 1725, leaving an only son and 
heir, James, upon whose death it was inherited by his sister 




&&S&S 



ST. LUKE'S CHURCH. ISLE OF WKIHT COUNTY 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 53 

Katherine, wife of Benjamin Cocke. In 1802 Allen Cocke 
left Bacon's Castle to his sister, Mrs. Bradley. After pass- 
ing through the hands of several other owners it was bought 
by Mr. William A. Warren, of Surry, who gave it to the 
present owner, his son, Mr. Charles Walker Warren, as 
a wedding gift. This seems most fitting, for the bride was 
Miss Pegram, daughter of Mr. Blair Pegram, of Surry, 
and is related to the Aliens, Cockes and other former 
owners of the old " Castle." 




BACON'S CASTLE, SURRY COUNTY 



About a quarter of a mile away from Bacon's Castle 
are the ivy-grown ruins of a Colonial church, with walls 
three feet thick. A brick found among these ruins bears 
the date 1736. 

CARTER'S GROVE 

Going up James River from Bacon's Castle and cross- 
ing to the north side, the next Colonial house of note is 
Carter's Grove, in the lower end of James City County. 
This fine old mansion was built by Carter Burwell in 1751. 
It stands on a bluff eighty feet high overlooking the river 
and, as may be imagined, the view from the windows is 
superb. The James is wide here and looking down stream 
the broad expanse of Burwell's Bay and still lower reaches 



54 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

may be seen. In front of the house, the hill has been cut 
down to form terraces below which a green field stretches 
away to the edge of the high river bank. 

The house is commodious and handsome, but modern 
porches, while they add greatly to its comfort, mar the 
beauty of the exterior. Within, it is one of the most im- 
pressive examples of Colonial home-building left in Vir- 
ginia. Walls of hall and rooms are panelled to the ceiling, 
where they are finished with beautiful cornices. The great 
central hall is spanned by a wide arch supported on either 
side by fluted pilasters, beneath which the fine old stair- 
way, with its carved banisters, descends with majestic 
sweep. Along the hand-rail may still be seen the gashes 
made by the sabres of Tarleton's men, who paid their 
resjuects to Carter's Grove when raiding Virginia during 
the Revolution. 

Some interesting details concerning the construction of 
the house are furnished by an old plantation account book 
of the Burwell family. This shows that the house was 
begun in June and finished in September. The labor was 
of course that of slaves, but a " master workman " — one 
David Minitree — was general director of construction and 
was brought from England, accompanied by his family, 
especially for this work. He was paid 115 pounds by Mr. 
Burwell for " building me a brick house according to agree- 
ment," and in addition received a present of 25 pounds. 
The timber used — 25,000 feet of plank, at ten shillings a 
thousand, 40,000 shingles, at four shillings a thousand, and 
15,000 lathes, at seven shillings a thousand — was evidently 
brought from a distance, as 32 pounds was paid for hauling 
it ; but the bricks — 460,000 at seventeen shillings a thousand 
— were made upon the place. Five hundred and forty 
squares of glass were used, at two and a half pence a square. 
The entire cost of building the house was five hundred 
pounds, which considering its substantial condition, after 
over a century and a half of wear and tear, seems most 
moderate. 




THE HALL AT CARTER'S GROVE 




CARTER'S GROVE, JAMES CITY COUNTY 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 57 

Carter Burwell, builder and first master of Carter's 
Grove, was the son of Colonel Nathaniel Burwell, of 
Carter's Creek, and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Robert 
(" King ") Carter. He was long a member of the House 
of Burgesses from James City County. He married Lucy, 
daughter of Honorable John Grymes (1693-1748) of 
Middlesex County, and had, among other children, (his 
eldest son) Colonel Nathaniel Burwell, who inherited 
Carter's Grove, but about the end of the eighteenth century 
moved to Clarke County, where he built Carter Hall. Since 
then Carter's Grove has had several owners, but has been 
best known as the hospitable home of Dr. Edwin Booth, 
who has, however, recently sold it. 

THE WARREN HOUSE 

Grays Creek, which flows into James River, opposite 
Jamestown, has at its mouth, on John Smith's map, " The 
New Fort." A short distance up the creek on a bluff on 
the " Smith Fort " farm are remains of earthworks, most 
probably a part of the " New Fort " built in 1608 or 1609. 

On " Smith's Fort " is an old brick residence exactly 
fifty feet long, which is the oldest house in Virginia whose 
exact date can be ascertained.* The records show that 
Thomas Rolfe, the son of Pocahontas, owned 1200 acres 
here which he sold to Thomas Warren (ancestor of the 
well-known Surry family) . Depositions on record at Surry 
Court House state that the Warrens' " fifty foot brick 
house " at Smith's Fort was built in 1654. After passing 
through many different hands, the house and a hundred or 
so acres of land adjoining are the property of a pros- 
perous negro family. 

FOUR MILE TREE 

Going on up the south side of the river, the travel- 
ler soon has a view of Four Mile Tree — a name evidently 
given the plantation on account of some conspicuous tree 

* See illustration at head of Index. 



58 



VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 



which distinguished it in early times. The mansion stands 
upon a steep, round-top hill overlooking the river and from 
the remnants of terraces and high box-hedges that may be 
still seen was, evidently, in its day, a place of beauty as 
well as consequence. 

As early as 1637, Henry Browne * patented 2250 acres 
" at the Four Mile Tree "and a little later 900 acres ad- 
joining. The estate remained in the Browne family, whose 
members were prominent in public life in nearly every 




:-- 



- "•*.-.'.■ 



FOUR MILK TREE, JAMES RIVER 

generation. William Browne, the last of the name who 
owned Four Mile Tree, died, in 1799, leaving an only 
child, Sally Edwards Browne, who married, in 1813, John 
T. Bowdoin, and dying, in 1815, left also an only child, 
Sally Elizabeth Courtney Bowdoin, who married Gen. 
Philip St. George Cocke, and they lived there until General 
Cocke built Belmead, on upper James River. 

In the graveyard may be seen — still in perfect condition 

—the oldest tomb in Virginia having a legible inscription, 

that of Mrs. Alice Jordan, who died in 1650. Her husband, 



* Browne : William and Mary College Quarterly Historical 
Magazine, xvi, 227 et seq. 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 59 

George Jordan, at one time Attorney General of Virginia, 
long survived her, and in his will, made in 1678, directed 
that he be buried beside his wife and children in Major 
Browne's orchard. 

GREEN SPRING 

Some distance back from the river, and four miles from 
Jamestown, was Green Spring, the home of Sir William 
Berkeley (1606-1677), the famous Cavalier Governor of 
Virginia. The place derives its name from " A very fine 
green spring that is upon the land," whose water was " so 
very cold that 'tis dangerous drinking thereof in summer- 
time." 

The estate of nearly a thousand acres was granted to 
Governor Berkeley in 1643, 1 and here he built him a home 
consisting of a central building containing six rooms and 
a large hall, with a commodious wing on either side. The 
ilreplaces were over four feet wide and nearly as deep, 
and there was a central chimney seven feet wide. There 
were a terraced lawn and flower gardens, and hot-houses 
in which orange trees and other tropical shrubs grew and 
bore fruit, and there were great stables filled with fine 
horses. 

Here Sir William kept open house for the Cavaliers 
who took refuge in Virginia during the banishment from 
England of his Majesty, Charles II ; here Nathaniel Bacon, 
on the march to Jamestown, where Sir William was en- 
trenched, rested, and made one of his ringing speeches to 
his " hearts of gold," and here he returned after besieging 
and burning Jamestown, and took up his headquarters. 
Here, too, on account of the destruction of the State House 
at Jamestown, the first Grand Assembly after Bacons 
Rebellion met. 

After Sir William Berkeley's death, his widow, the fair 
and fascinating Lady Frances, married the Honorable 
Philip Ludwell I (becoming his second wife), and Green 

1 Hening, Statutes at Large . . . of Virginia, ii, 319. 



60 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Spring passed to the Ludwell family. 2 Three successive 
Philip Ludwells owned it — wealthy and prominent men, 
all of them, and members of his Majesty's Council. In 
taking a second husband Lady Berkeley could not bring 
herself to part with the title her first had given her, and 
not only did she continue to be called by it the rest of her 
days, but " Lady Berkeley " was the name inscribed on 
her tomb. Her cousin Lord Culpeper, who was made 
Governor of the Colony in 1680, rented Greenspring from 
the Ludwells and lived there in state. 

Finally Green Spring passed to the Lees, by the mar- 
riage of Hannah Philippa, daughter and co-heiress of the 
third Colonel Philip Ludwell, with Honorable William 
Lee, Minister of the United States at the Courts of Vienna 
and Berlin, who in his latter days retired to the famous 
old plantation and lived there in style and splendor. 

An advertisement in a Richmond newspaper of 1816 
for the sale of Green Spring — at that time 2934 acres — 
shows that the house then standing (the ruins of which 
now remain) was built by William L. Lee, son of William 
Lee. 

CLAREMONT 

In the same county with Four Mile Tree — at its upper 
end — is Claremont, best known as the home of the Allen 
family, which has been identified with it for two centuries 
and a quarter. Part of this handsome estate of 12,000 acres 
was granted as early as 1649 to Arthur Allen, Justice of 
Surry — for several years a burgess and in 1688 Speaker of 
the House of Burgesses — who married Catherine, daughter 
and heiress of Burgess Lawrence Baker, of Surry, and 
left a number of children. The manor plantation was first 
inherited by the eldest son James and after his death by his 
brother, Arthur Allen, third of the name. This Arthur 
married Elizabeth Bray. His daughter Catherine married 

2 Ludwell : An account of the Ludwell family may be found in 
E. J. Lee's Lee of Virginia. 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 61 

Benjamin Cocke, and his son James died unmarried, leav- 
ing his unentailed estate to his sister and her children and 
in case of their death without heirs, to Southwark Parish, 
for founding a school to be called " Allen's School." Upon 
James Allen's death the manor plantation at Claremont 
passed to his cousin, Colonel William Allen, of Claremont 
—a member of the Convention of 1788 and of the Virginia 
Legislature. He left one son, Colonel William Allen, Jr., 
of Claremont — a member of the Legislature, Colonel of 
Militia in the War of 1812 and one of the largest land and 
slave owners in Virginia. 




CLARKMONT, SURRY COUNTY 



Colonel William Allen, Jr., left his estate to his great- 
nephew, William Orgain, who took the name of Allen. 
He served as a major of artillery in the Confederate Army 
and was known as Major William Allen, of Claremont. 
At one time he owned the largest landed estate in Virginia 
—his possessions including the plantations of Claremont, 
Kingsmill, Jamestown Island, Neck of Land, Curie's Neck 
and other valuable lands to the number of thirty or forty 
thousand acres. He also owned some seven or eight him- 



62 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

dred slaves. With his death, in 1875, the Allen tenure at 
Claremont ceased, and the great estate has been since cut 
up into small farms — part of it being now the town of 
Claremont. 

An interesting incident in the Allen family history is 
furnished by the will of Mrs. Elizabeth Bray Allen, who 
upon the death of her husband, Colonel Arthur Allen, 
third, married Colonel Arthur Smith, of Isle of Wight, 
and founded a free school at Smithfield. In her will she 
left fifty pounds for the purchase of " an altar piece for 
the Lower Church of Southwalk Parish," Surry, upon 
which Moses and Aaron were to be represented holding 
between them the Ten Commandments, while upon either 
side was to hang a small tablet, one of them containing the 
Lord's Prayer and the other the Apostles' Creed. 3 

TEDINGTON 

The Sandy Point estate on James River, in Charles 
City County, was for several generations the home of that 
branch of the Lightf oot family in Virginia which descends 
from Honorable Philip Lightf oot (grandson of Richard 
Lightfoot, rector of Stoke-Bruerne, Northamptonshire, 
England), who was in the colony as early as 1671. He 
held various offices of trust and honor, among them collec- 
tor for the Upper District of James River and surveyor 
general of the colony. 4 

Philip Lightfoot owned a large acreage at Sandy 
Point, where, by the way, was, at the settlement of Vir- 
ginia, seated the Indian town of " Paspahegh." 

The house at Sandy Point, says Tyler in his Cradle of 
the Republic, is said to have been built in 1717, and is 
called " Tedington," the name of a place in London. This 

3 Allen genealogy, William and Mary College Quarterly His- 
torical Magazne, viii, 110—115. 

4 Lightfoot family : William and Mary College Quarterly His- 
torical Magazine, n, 91-97, 204-207 and 259-262; iii, 104-111, 
137. 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 63 

house has massive walls of brick and from the first floor is 
weather-boarded over the inside brick casing, known in 
Colonial days as a stock brick building and supposed to be 
indestructible. 

At Sandy Point are buried several of the older gen- 
erations of the Lightfoot family, beneath tombs bearing 
the family arms. 




TEDINGTON, CHARLES CITY COUNTY 



From the Lightfoots, the estate passed to the Minges 
and Boilings and from the latter, by sale, to Baylor. 

Charles Campbell, the Virginia historian, published a 
fascinating account of Tedington in the Southern IAterary 
Messenger for March, 1841, called, " Christmas Holidays 



at Tedington." 



BRANDON 



Separated only by Upper Chippokes Creek from the 
great Claremont estate and extending like it along the 
James, is historic Brandon. 

Its approach from the river-front is through the love- 
liest old garden in Virginia, and every flower and shrub 
known to Virginia gardens has a place there, from the 



64 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

violet, the cowslip and the lily-of- the- valley underfoot, to 
the mimosa and the magnolia shedding sweetness in the 
upper air. 

The garden is open to the river at the end but is en- 
closed on each side by a box-hedge walk. Entrance is from 
a corner where box-walk and river bluff meet, through a 
bower of honeysuckle. A short path along the bluff leads 
to a broad grass-walk, bordered on either side with flower- 
ing shrubs of every description, which cuts the garden in 
two and provides a most beautiful approach to the house. 
In the spaces between this central walk and the box-walks 
the flowers in their respective seasons make a variety of 
color. In midsummer numberless hollyhocks set in formal 
rows and in beds are in their glory, while through spring, 
summer, and fall roses in splendid variety show what roses 
can be at their best. 

The grass-walk ends in a smooth green lawn stretching 
away on either side to the box-hedges, upon which stands 
the hoary mansion, its tempest-stained and bullet-scarred 
walls presenting a striking contrast to the gay garden, for 
no attempt has ever been made to cover the fact that during 
the War between the States the house was used as a target 
by Northern soldiers, who also burned the barns and out- 
buildings, pried off some of the wainscoting inside of the 
house in hope of finding treasure, and broke some window- 
panes upon which had been scratched with diamonds the 
names of visitors to the house for a hundred years or more 
— many of them persons of note. The Southern poet John 
R. Thompson made these panes the subject of a quaint bit 
of verse, " The Window-panes of Brandon." 

The house consists of a square central building with 
square porches at both back and front, and this central 
building is connected by one-story passage-ways with a 
wing at either side. Crossing the threshold we find our- 
selves within a spacious hall, wainscoted to the ceiling and 
relieved midway by triple arches supported upon fluted 
columns. After two hundred years the Harrisons still own 




BRANDON, PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY 




THE HALL AT BRANDON 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 67 

and occupy Brandon, with the household gods accumulated 
during that period around them. These gentle and com- 
panionable deities will prove as full of inspiration as the 
flower garden, for they make the home as redolent with 
memories as the garden is with bloom. 

Upon the walls of drawing-room and dining-room 
which open upon the hall from either side hang the famous 
collection of Byrd portraits from Westover — brought 
hither when the daughter of the third Colonel William 
Byrd married Benjamin Harrison. Some of these are by 
such distinguished artists as Godfrey Kneller, Vandyke and 
Sir Peter Lely. Here is, also, rich old mahogany worthy 
to be used by the stately ladies and gentlemen who look 
down upon it, and picturesque old cabinets filled with 
Colonial silver, every piece of which has its own story. 

Here is a gown of pink brocade and a painted fan which 
once belonged to the fair Mistress Evelyn Byrd. 

A round of the treasure-filled rooms finally brings us 
out into the porch at the opposite end of the hall from that 
by which we entered, and here the eye is surprised by the 
contrast the grounds on this side of the house make with 
the river-front. Instead of the brilliant garden is an open 
lawn, and beyond a sunlit space of unbroken green spreads 
a park where wide-spreading oaks and elms make shadowy 
vistas. 

Brandon plantation was first granted to John Martin, 
who came over with John Smith and was a member of " his 
Majesty's first Council in Virginia," and its earliest name 
was " Martin's Brandon." Chie of the most interesting' 
relics in Virginia is the original grant to John Martin still 
preserved at Brandon. Later Martin must have either sold 
or abandoned the estate, for in 1635 it was granted to John 
Sadler and Richard Quiney, merchants, and William 
Barber, mariner. Richard Quiney's brother, Thomas 
Quiney, married Judith, daughter of W r illiam J>hakespeare. 
Richard Quiney left his share of the property to his son, 
who left it to his great-nephew, Robert Richardson, who 



G8 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

sold it in 1720 to Nathaniel Harrison 5 (1677-1727) of 
" Wakefield," Surry County, son of Honorable Benjamin 
Harrison (1645-1712) of " Wakefield," who was second 
of the name in Virginia. He had evidently already bought 
the rest from the Sadlers, for the records show that he 
owned " the tract called Brandon, containing 7,000 acres." 

The new owner of Brandon was a burgess and a coun- 
cillor, naval officer of the Lower James, county lieutenant 
of Surry and Prince George and finally auditor general 
of the Colony. He married a widow, Mrs. Mary Young, 
nee Cary, and had seven children — among them Nathaniel 
Harrison II, eldest son, who inherited Brandon and built 
the present house. Nathaniel Harrison, of Brandon, was 
like his father a prominent man in the colony and a mem- 
ber of the Council of State. He married first Mary, 
daughter of Colonel Cole Uigges (1692-1744),° arid 
secondly, Lucy, widow of Henry Fitzhugh and daughter 
of Honorable Robert Carter, of Corotoman. His first wife 
was the mother of his eldest son and the heir of Brandon, 
Benjamin Harrison, whose portrait is among those upon 
the walls. 

Benjamin Harrison was twice married, and the por- 
traits of his two exceeding fair ladies hang amicably in 
the same room at Brandon. His first wife was Anne 
Randolph, of Wilton, who left no children, and the second, 
Evelyn Taylor Byrd, daughter of Colonel William Byrd 
III, of Westover — of an entirely different type from her 
namesake and aunt, the famous Evelyn, but second only to 
her in beauty. By his marriage with her, Benjamin Har- 
rison had two sons, between whom the plantation was 
divided — George Evelyn, the elder son, of course, inherited 
the lower part, upon which the family-seat stands, and 

5 The Harrison family has been very thoroughly worked out 
by Keith in his Ancestry of Benjamin Harrison . . . Philadelphia, 
1893, and in The Critic (Richmond, Va.), June 23, July 7 and 21, 
1889. 

6 Digges family : Pedigree of a Representative Virginia Planter, 
in William and Mar// Quarterly, i, 80-88, 140-154, 208-213. 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 69 

William Byrd Harrison, the younger son, received the part 
upon which Upper Brandon was built. 

George Evelyn Harrison was a prominent man in his 
time and a member of the House of Delegates from his 
county — Prince George. He married Isabella Ritchie, 
daughter of Thomas Ritchie, the distinguished Virginia 
editor, and had two children, George Evelyn and Isabella. 
He died in 1839, aged 42, and from that date until her own 
death, in 1898, Brandon was owned by his widow, Mrs. 
Isabella Ritchie Harrison, who was affectionately known 
throughout Virginia by the name her servants gave her, 
" Old Miss," and who reigned supreme, not only over 
Brandon but its vicinity for miles around, for over a half- 
century. In doing the honors of her hospitable home she 
was always assisted by her daughter " Miss Belle," who 
was widely known and admired for her loveliness and charm 
of person and character, but who, electing to remain un- 
married, never left the Brandon roof -tree. 

George Evelyn Harrison, Jr., married Miss Gulielma 
Gordon, of Savannah, Georgia. He died young, leaving 
several children, and upon the death of " Old Miss," his 
widow, Mrs. Gulielma G. Harrison, succeeded to the dis- 
tinguished post of mistress of Brandon. Since her death, 
the estate is owned by her sons and daughters. 

UPPER BRANDON 

Upper Brandon, a handsome and spacious mansion, 
flanked on either side by commodious wings, stands in a 
box-bordered lawn, completely screened from the view of 
passers-by on the James by the grove of superb oaks be- 
tween it and the river. It was built early in the nineteenth 
century by William Byrd Harrison, son of Benjamin 
Harrison and the beautiful Evelyn Taylor Byrd, his wife. 

Mr. Harrison was one of the most prominent gentle- 
men and planters in Virginia. He was twice married, first, 
in 1827, to Mary Randolph, daughter of Randolph Har- 
rison of Elk Hill, Goochland County, and secondlv to 



70 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Ellen Wavles, daughter of Colonel Thomas Jefferson 
Randolph,' of Edge Hill, Albemarle County. Three of 
his sons were gallant officers in the Confederate Army and 
one of them, Captain Benjamin Harrison, of The Row, 
Charles City County, was killed at the Battle of Malvern 

Hill. 

After the death of "Sir. Harrison, Upper Brandon was 
sold and passed into the possession of his nephew, Mr. 
George H. Byrd, of New York, whose son now owns the 
place and lives there. 

There were formerly at Upper Brandon a number of 
interesting portraits — among them one of Miss Blount, 
said to have been a sweetheart of the poet Pope. 

WEYANOKE 

Weyanoke, which lies on the north side of the river, not 
many miles above Upper Brandon, first appears in history 
during the exploring voyage of Captain Christopher New- 
port, Captain John Smith and others, up the James, in 
1607. They found seated at this place the Weyanoke 
Indians — a tribe governed by a queen subordinate to Pow- 
hatan. In the writings of the early colonists there is fre- 
quent reference to the Queen of Weyanoke. 

Governor Sir George Yeardley acquired an estate at 
Weyanoke which was afterwards sold to the rich planter 
and merchant Abraham Piersey. On account of the de- 
struction of the county records, we have no knowledge of 
the ownership of the plantation for a time, but toward the 
end of the seventeenth century it became the property of 
the Harwoods 7 — long a prominent family in Charles City 
County. 

In 1740, William Harwood built in place of an earlier 
dwelling the spacious frame house which still stands at 
Weyanoke. Toward the close of the eighteenth century, 

7 Harwood notes: Virginia Magazine of History and Biog- 
raphy, ii, 183-185. 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 73 

Agnes, daughter and co-heiress of Major Samuel Har- 
wood, of Weyanoke, married Fielding Lewis, a son of 
Colonel Warner Lewis, of Warner Hall, Gloucester 
County, and inherited the old homestead. Mr. Lewis was 
noted as a scientific planter, and his portrait was in the 
collection of the Virginia Agricultural Society, and now 
hangs in the Virginia State Library. His daughter, 
Eleanor, who likewise inherited the homestead, married 
Robert Douthat, and had several children. One of these, 
Major Robert Douthat, was the next master of Weyanoke, 




WEYANOKE, CHARLKS CITY COUNTY 



which he sold in 1876. Another son, Fielding Lewis 
Douthat, inherited part of the estate. He married Mary 
Willis Marshall, a descendant of the great Chief Justice, 
who with her children now lives at Lower Weyanoke. 



SHERWOOD FOREST 

" Sherwood Forest " is situated on the north side of 
James River in Charles City County, Virginia, opposite to 
the famous Brandon estates in Prince George County. 
The tract originally consisted of 1200 acres, and the manor 
house is a building of framed timbers facing a ten-acre 



74 



VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 



grove of primeval oaks, and in the rear is a circular de- 
scending park of choice trees originally from the Washing- 
ton Botanical Gardens. The main building is two stories 
and a half high with dormer windows. On each side is a 
wing consisting of a story and a half, and to each wing is 
attached a long enclosed colonnade, ending in two framed 
buildings, also of a story and a half — the eastern wing con- 
taining the laundry and kitchen, and the western the 
library and overseer's office. It is the longest connected 
dwelling in Virginia — being upwards of 100 yards in 




SHERWOOD FOREST, CHARLES CITY COUNTY 



length. The place was formerly known as " Walnut 
Grove," and was bought by President John Tyler of Col- 
lier Minge in 1842. At the time of the purchase, there was 
standing a house of Revolutionary age. President Tyler 
duplicated the structure and added the colonnades and 
houses at the ends. On his retirement from the Presidency, 
in 1845, he came there to live with his bride, the second 
Mrs. Tyler, whose maiden name was Julia Gardiner. 

The President was very fond of poetry and romance, 
and, in view of his outlawry by the Whig Party, he likened 
himself to Robin Hood and named his new home " Slier- 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 75 

wood Forest," after the scene of action, in England, of the 
bold Englishman. Although everything was destroyed on 
the farm, the house passed safely through the Civil War, 
and is now the residence of President Tyler's oldest son by 
his second marriage — D. Gardiner Tyler, Judge of the 
14th Judicial Circuit of Virginia. 

Three miles away is Greenway, the residence of Gov- 
ernor John Tyler, Sr., and the birthplace of the President. 

FLOWER DE HUNDRED 

The fantastic name of Flower de Hundred (whose 
origin is wrapped in mystery), the setting of green lawn 
and foliage and the view of the river with its " firm, sandy 
shore, its bluff beyond, its fringe of trees and tangle of 
lilies," give the long, white, cottage-like homestead " a 
charm rare even in the enchanted region of James River." 

The plantation is one of the oldest and most historic 
on the river. Its first owner was Sir George Yeardley, the 
Governor who called and presided over the famous As- 
sembly of 1619 — the first free legislature convened in 
America. In this Assembly, Flower de Hundred was repre- 
sented by Governor Yeardley' s nephew, Edmund Rossing- 
ham, and John Jefferson, an ancestor of Thomas Jeffer- 
son. Governor Yeardley himself lived at Jamestown, but, 
in 1621, he built, at Flower de Hundred, the first wind-mill 
in America. In the massacre of 1622, the Indians mur- 
dered six persons at Flower de Hundred. A few years 
later the plantation was sold to the rich " Cape Merchant " 
and councillor, Abraham Piersy. 

In 1633, Thomas Paulett was Burgess for Flower de 
Hundred and his heir was his nephew, Sir John Paulett. 
After that there were several changes of ownership until 
1725, when it was bought by Joseph Poythress and has 
been owned by his descendants ever since. In 1804 it 
passed to the Willcox family by the marriage of Susan 
Peachy Poythress to John Vaughn Willcox, a resident of 
Petersburg. Mr. Willcox built the oldest part of the 
present house something over a hundred years ago; this 



76 



VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 



consisted of three rooms which he used while superintend- 
ing the cultivation of the plantation. The house, as it 
stands to-day, was completed by John Poythress Willcox 
(son of John Vaughn Willcox) . 

Like most old Virginia homes, Flower de Hundred has 
its war history. In 1862, its " new wharf " was burned by 
order of the Confederate Government to prevent the land- 
ing of Northern soldiers on the south side of the James. 
" Before its embers were cold the first Federal gunboat 
ever seen that high up the river came in sight to disturb a 
peaceful stretch of waters which after this became a ' forest 
of masts.' " Two years later, in June, 1864, General Grant 
on the march to Petersburg, made his famous crossing of 
the James, 130,000 strong, from River Edge, opposite 
Flower de Hundred. ' The feat was accomplished in two 




FLOWER DE HUNDRED, PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY 

days — a glorious sight as described by his generals — under 
a brilliant sky, in fields of sunshine," but to the gentle 
mistress of Flower de Hundred, " along with her aged 
mother and a few faithful servants, the picture had a reverse 
side. She watched the landing at Windmill Point, the 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 77 

tramping through her standing corn, the bivouac about 
her house, the place swarming with soldiers and covered 
with tents, batteries, horses and wagons, and when they 
went away there were floors torn up and mahogany hacked 
to pieces, and marble hearths broken to bits and the memory 
of one trooper disappearing up the road decked in the 
bridal veil and orange blossoms of a newly married daugh- 
ter of the house. Long afterward the broken marble was 
gathered up as a sacred relic and became a hearth again — 
this time a mosaic." 

The Flower de Hundred plantation has undergone as 
many changes of size and shape as of ownership. It con- 
tains at present upward of a thousand acres. 

This interesting old homestead has been made the scene 
of three published romances. 




,{(£»; 



MERCHANT'S HOPE CHURCH, PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY 



MERCHANTS HOPE CHURCH 

Not many miles from Flower de Hundred, in the same 
county — Prince George — stands, within a beautiful grove, 
the quaint old brick church known as Merchant's Hope, 



78 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

which took its name from a plantation established at a very 
early date by some London merchants. It is supposed to 
have been built in 1657, as that date was found upon 
timbers inside the roof. 

This church, sixty feet long and twenty-six feet wide, 
is still in a fair state of preservation — the pulpit and 
chancel furniture destroyed during the War between the 
States having been replaced by new ones. The original 
floor of stone flagging is still there, as is the ponderous 
Bible printed in 1625. 

Not far from the church, on the same side of the river, 
is " Jordan's Point," which was so long the plantation and 
home of the distinguished family of Bland. The old man- 
sion house disappeared long ago. At an early period of 
our history it was the home of Mrs. Cicely Jordan, a too 
fascinating widow, whose coquetries induced the Governor 
and Council to issue a stern edict against women who en- 
gage themselves to two men at the same time. 

There is no record in Virginia indicating that this edict 
was ever revoked. 

WESTOVER 8 

From a deep green setting of shade-tree and turf, 
Westover, deep red, tall, stately and serene, gleams upon 
James River. Its high and steep roof is unrelieved save 
by dormer windows and towering chimneys. Its formal 
red-brick walls are unencumbered by porch or ornament, 
but foot-worn gray stone steps rise in a pyramid to a white 
portal of exquisite taste. Above a fan-light a massive 
cornice, supported by Corinthian pilasters, is capped by 
a carved pineapple — emblem of hospitality — within a 
broken pediment. 

8 For full histories of the Byrds and their estates see The 
Writings of Colonel William Byrd of Westover in Virginia, Esqr., 
edited by John Spencer Bassett, New York, 1901, the Introduction 
and Appendix; The Critic (Richmond, Va.), December 14 and 16, 
1888; The Title to Westover in William and Mary Quarterly, iv, 
151-155. 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 81 

The row of wonderful old tulip poplars, with their 
gnarled and twisted arms, in front of the house is believed 
to have stood guard there for a century and a half, and 
the green carpet that stretches to the edge of the bluff is 
as old as the trees. 

The main entrance to the grounds is at the rear where 
noble iron gates bearing the Byrd arms swing between 
square, brick piers ten feet high, surmounted by brass 
falcons standing with wings spread as if for flight. The 
interior of the mansion — with its great central hall and 




WESTOVER GATES 



stairway, its panelled rooms, whose ceilings are adorned 
with medallions and garlands in relief, its deep fireplaces 
and tall carved mantels, its massive doors with their huge 
brass locks — is in perfect keeping with the stateliness of 
the exterior, and proclaims it at once as the home of culture 
and elegance. 

About the year 1674 William Byrd (1653-1704), first 
of the name in Virginia, and his wife, Mary — descendants, 
both, of good old English families — came to Virginia and 
settled at the Falls of James River, where they called 
their home Belvidere. In 1688 Byrd bought from 



82 



VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 



Theodorick Bland the plantation of Westover, and took 
up his abode there. About the year 1730 his son and heir, 
William Byrd II (1674-1744), built the mansion which 
so fittingly crowns that fair plantation. 

In the young master of Westover were met such an 
unusual number of happy gifts, so well improved by cul- 
tivation, that he was dubbed the " Black Swan " of Vir- 
ginia. He was not only born to " an ample fortune " 



as 




THE PARLOR AT WESTOVER 

his epitaph informs us — but with a brilliant mind, a cour- 
ageous spirit and a kindly disposition. Besides, he was 
handsome, graceful, and fascinating. He was liberally 
educated abroad, where he travelled much and was in the 
best society. He was in demand everywhere, for he was 
at once the most elegant of gentlemen and the best of good 
fellows. He was a man of many resources, with a special 
leaning toward literature, and collected, at Westover, the 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 83 

finest library of Colonial times in America. He did not 
write for publication, but left diaries which have been 
printed under the title of " The Westover Manuscripts " 
and are models of pure English — fresh, sparkling and 
picturesque. 

He took an active and leading part in public affairs, 
and filled many important offices — among them that of 
President of " his Majesty's Council." 

He was twice married — first to Lucy, daughter of 
Colonel Daniel Parke (1669-1710), Marlborough's aide- 
de-camp ; and after her death to Maria Taylor, of Kensing- 
ton, a wealthy and attractive young widow. The first wife 
was the mother of Evelyn (1 707-1 737) and Wilhemina 
Byrd; and the second, of Anne (1725-1757), Maria 
(1727-1744), William (1729-1777), and Jane. His 
daughters were noted belles, especially Evelyn — the eldest 
— whose fame as a beauty spread to England. She was 
presented at Court at the age of eighteen and was the toast 
of noblemen — the King himself expressing pleasure at 
finding his Colonies could furnish such " beautiful Byrds." 
According to tradition, she was wooed and won while in 
England by the Earl of Peterborough, but her father 
would not hear of the match and hurried her back to Vir- 
ginia, where the " beautiful Byrd " gradually faded away 
and, at the age of twenty-seven, died a spinster, of a broken 
heart. A fine portrait which now adorns the walls at 
Brandon preserves her flower-like loveliness. 

Her sisters, whose portraits show that they were close 
seconds to her in beauty, became the wives : Wilhemina, of 
Thomas Chamberlayne; Anne, of Charles Carter of 
" Cleve "; Maria, of Landon Carter of " Sabine Hall "; 
and Jane, of John Page of " North End "; and her only 
brother, Colonel William Byrd III (1729-1777), heir of 
Westover, married : first, Elizabeth Hill, daughter of John 
Carter, of Shirley, and, secondly, Mary, daughter of 
Charles and Anne Shippen Willing, of Philadelphia. The 
descendants of the " Black Swan " of Virginia are legion. 

Colonel William Byrd III was, like his father and 



84 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

grandfather, a distinguished member of the Virginia Coun- 
cil and served gallantly as a colonel of a Virginia regiment 
during the French and Indian War. His spirit and 
liberality in this service were highly commended by the 
English Commander-in-Chief in America. He was a man 
of talent and cultivation, but was, unhappily, possessed 




WESTOVER DURING THE WAR 1861-1865 

by an incurable passion for gaming, which finally wrecked 
his superb estate. He died in 1777, leaving, at Westover, 
a widow and several daughters, who, like the " beautiful 
Byrds " of the former generation, were noted for their 
charms. They especially attracted some of the French 
officers who had taken part in the siege of Yorktown, and 
the Marquis de Chastellux declared in his memoirs that 
Westover was the most beautiful place in America. 

Westover was twice visited by the British army during 
the Revolution. Arnold was there in 1781, and Cornwallis 
crossed the river there, with his forces, in April of the same 
year. Mrs. Mary Willing Byrd had many Tory con- 
nections and was at one time so strongly suspected of cor- 
responding with the enemy that her papers were seized by 
the Virginia officers. The splendid library at Westover 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 85 

and the family plate were sold during her lifetime and 
after her death the estate passed from the Byrd family. 
It was long the property of the Seldens and passed from 
them, by sale, to Major Augustus Drewry and from him, 
in the same manner, to Mrs. Clarice Sears Ramsay, the 
present owner, who has done much to restore both house 
and grounds to their early beauty. 

Many interesting traditions linger about Westover. 
The room of the lovely Evelyn Byrd is still pointed out 
and it is said that the tap of her high-heeled slippers and 
swish of her silken gown may be sometimes heard on the 
broad stair, in the watches of the night. Not far from the 
house, at the site of the old Westover Church, may be seen 
her tomb, together with those of her grandfather, William 
Byrd I, Theodorick Bland and other worthies of an earlier 
time. Her father's ashes rest under a handsome tomb in 
the garden. 

Westover had its taste of the war of 1861-1865 as well 
as of the Revolution, for there McClellan's army camped 
after the retreat from Richmond. 




WESTOVER CHURCH 



86 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

WESTOVER CHURCH 

Was built about 1740, after the site close to Westover 
house was given up. It has had a checkered career, having 
been, during the general depression of the Episcopal 
Church, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, used as 
a barn, and, during the War between the States, used by 
Federal troops as a stable. It has now been thoroughly 
restored. 

BERKELEY 

Berkeley, which adjoins the Westover estate, and 
Brandon have been called the " cradles " of the Harrison 
family in Virginia. Berkeley house stands a quarter of 
a mile back from the river. It is a square brick building, 
two stories high, with gable roof and dormer windows, and 
a wide porch, added in later times, running around it. 
Within there are panelled rooms, a wide arched hall and 
carved mantels and cornices of unusual beauty. In historic 
interest it is second to that of none of the James River 
mansions. 

Its story begins before the Harrisons came to Virginia, 
when, in 1618, the London Company granted Berkeley 
plantation to Sir William Throckmorton, Sir George 
Yeardley, Richard Berkeley and John Smith of Nibley. 9 
On December 4, 1619, the ship Margaret, of Bristol, 
arrived at Jamestown, bringing, under care of Captain 
John Woodlief, thirty-five settlers for the Town and 
Hundred of Berkeley, which then contained about 8,000 
acres. In 1621, Reverend John Paulett, a kinsman of 
Lord Paulett, was minister at Berkeley Hundred. In 
1622, the year of the great Indian massacre which nearly 
wiped Virginia out of existence, Mr. George Thorpe, 
formerly a gentleman of the King's Privy Chamber, who 
had been appointed by the Virginia Company head of the 

9 Papers relative to settlement, etc., Berkeley Hundred, are 
published in Bulletin of the New York Public Library, iii, Nos. 4-7 
(April to July, 1899). 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 89 

proposed college, was one of the nine residents of Berkeley 
Hundred murdered by the Indians. After the massacre 
the plantation was abandoned for a time. Later, it became 
the property of John Bland, 10 a London merchant, whose 
son Giles Bland lived there until he was hanged, in 1676, 
by Sir William Berkeley, for his part in Bacon's Rebellion. 
After this Berkeley passed into the hands of the Harrison 
family, who owned and occupied it through five genera- 
tions, during which it was the birthplace of a governor of 
Virginia and signer of the Declaration of Independence, 
a Revolutionary general and a president of the United 
States. 

The first of the Harrisons to be master of Berkeley 
was Benjamin ( 1673-1710) , third of the name in Virginia, 
who was attorney-general and speaker of the House of 
Burgesses and treasurer of the Colony. He was the son 
of the Honorable Benjamin Harrison II (1695-1712), 
of " Wakefield," Surry County, and brother of Honor- 
able Nathaniel Harrison I, of " Wakefield, " whose son, 
Honorable Nathaniel Harrison II, was the founder of 
the " Brandon " family. Benjamin Ill's massive tomb, 
with its inscription in Latin, with the exception of one 
line, which is in Greek, remains at the site of old West- 
over Church. By his side rests his wife, who was Eliza- 
beth, daughter of Honorable Lewis Burwell II, whose 
tomb bears the coat-of-arms of her family. Upon his 
death the estate descended to his son Benjamin IV, who 
was many years a member of the House of Burgesses 
and who built the present house at Berkeley. He mar- 
ried Anne, daughter of Robert ("King") Carter, and 
at his death, in 1744, left Berkeley to his son Benjamin 
Harrison (1726-1791), signer of the Declaration of In- 
dependence, and father of William Henry Harrison, Presi- 
dent of the United States, who was born at Berkeley. 

President Harrison's eldest brother, Benjamin, in- 

10 The Critic (Richmond, Va.), July 9, 1880. 



90 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

herited Berkeley, which passed down through a line bearing 
the same Christian name until it was sold not long before 
the War between the States. 

It is said that every President of the United States, 
from Washington to Buchanan, was at some time a guest 
at Berkeley, and that upon the election to this high office 
of General William Henry Harrison ("Tippecanoe") 
he went to his mother's room there, to write his inaugural 
address. The historic room is still pointed out. 

The late President Benjamin Harrison, during his ad- 
ministration, visited this historic home of his forefathers. 

During the War between the States the house at Berke- 
ley was used as headquarters by General McClellan and 
hi's staff after his retreat from Malvern Hill, and his army 
was camped for miles along the river banks. The cellar 
is said to have been used by him as a prison for Confederate 
soldiers, and from the Berkeley Wharf, known to history 
as " Harrison's Landing," his troops were embarked upon 
the Northern transports. 

In 1882, Berkeley, which now contains 1400 acres, be- 
came the property of Judge Henry F. Knox, of New York. 
To-day the old place has a practical as well as a senti- 
mental interest, for the Berkeley fishing-shore is one of the 
finest, as well as one of the oldest, on James River, and as 
many as 22,931 shad and 200,000 herring have been landed 
there in one season. A visitor there once described the 
hauling of the seine 500 yards long, by a crew of fifteen 
men. 

" It is a fascinating sight to see a haul on a good day 
on the Berkeley shore. As the great seine is drawn in shore 
by the crew the very waters seethe with fish of all varieties, 
from the luscious roe shad to the insignificant baby perch. 
As the haul is landed the fish are sorted into baskets and 
taken to the fish house, where they lie on the cool brick 
floor until they are shipped to the city markets." 

Berkeley has lately become the property of Mr. 
Jamieson and is in admirable condition. 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 91 

APPOMATTOX 

Upon a green point between two rivers, where the 
Appomattox meets and joins the James, glimpses of a 
rambling white house, with dormer roof and huge chimneys, 
may be seen through the foliage of the ancient trees that 
embower it — making one of the most charming of the 
many charming pictures with which old Virginia rewards 
the exertions of its tourist. This is Appomattox, the home 




APPOMATTOX, PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY 

of the Eppes family for two hundred and seventy years — 
a length of tenure unequalled in Virginia, and probably in 
America. 

As early as 1635 Francis Eppes, 11 a member of "his 
Majesty's Council in Virginia," patented here broad acres, 
which have ever since been the property of his descendants. 
They also own goodly estates in the neighboring counties 
of Chesterfield and Charles City, which are divided from 
Appomattox by the two rivers,' but may be plainly seen 
across them. 



1 Eppes family: Virginia Magazine oi History and Biography, 
iii, 281, 393-401. 



92 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Appomattox is now the home of the daughters of Dr. 
Richard Eppes. 

At one time during the siege of Petersburg, in the War 
between the States, the house was the headquarters of 
General Grant. 

BLANDFORD CHURCH 

At the head of tide-water, on the Appomattox River, 
stands Petersburg. This town has many historic asso- 
ciations, but its chief treasure and pride is old Blandford, 
the principal church of Bristol Parish. 12 For some years 




BLANDFORD CHURCH, PETERSBURG 

before the Revolution the town of Blandford (now a part 
of Petersburg), from which the church gets its name, was 
a busy port and one of the leading shipping points for 
tobacco from Virginia to England and Scotland. 

The church was built in 1787. According to the articles 
of agreement, it was to be of brick, sixty by twenty-five 
feet in the clear, and fifteen feet from the spring of the 

1 2 Chamberlayne, The Vestry Book and Register of Bristol 
Parish, Virginia, 1720-1789. Richmond, 1898. 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 93 

arch to the floor. The aisle was to be six feet wide and 
paved with Bristol stone. There was to be a " decent 
pulpit and a decent rail around the altar place and a table 
suitable thereto as usual." 

In the year 1737 the great orator, Whitefield, preached 
at Elandford — an event which made a great sensation. 

Some time after the Revolution the old church was 
abandoned and fell into decay, but the churchyard con- 
tinued to be, and still is, the town cemetery of Petersburg. 
As a moss-grown, ivy-draped ruin Blandford became 
famous and has been the subject of some half-dozen pub- 
lished poems and many a burst of eloquence in prose. The 
celebrated Irish comedian, Tyrone Power, during a visit 
to Petersburg, fell in love with this picturesque relic of the 
past and described it in his " Travels." 

To Power, too, has been attributed a much-quoted poem 
written with pencil upon the whitewashed wall within the 
church. Its first and last stanzas are as follows : 

" Thou art crumbling to the dust, old pile : 
Thou art hastening to thy fall ; 
And round thee in thy loneliness 
Clings the ivy to the wall ; 
The worshippers are scattered now 
Who knelt before thy shrine, 
And silence reigns where anthems rose 
In the days of ' Auld Lang Syne.' 

" Oh ! could we call the many back, 
Who've gathered here in vain, 
Who've careless roved where we do now, 
Who'll never meet again, 
How would our very hearts be stirred, 
To meet the earnest gaze 
Of the lovely and the beautiful, 
The lights of other days ! " 

Old Blandford was close to the battle-fields in the War 
between the States, and its venerable walls suffered 
damage from the shells. The famous " Crater " was but 
a short distance away. 



94 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

This now restored church has lately become a Con- 
federate Memorial Hall, in which each of the States of the 
Southern Confederacy has placed a memorial window. 

BOLLINGBROOK 

The most interesting house in Petersburg is Boiling- 
brook, the old homestead of the Boiling family. 

In April, 1781, when the British first occupied Peters- 
burg, their commander, General Philips, made Boiling- 
brook his headquarters. On May 10, when they again took 
possession of the town, General Philips was ill and was 
carried to Bollingbrook. The Americans under Lafayette 
were cannonading Petersburg from the other side of the 
Appomattox and the fire was so severe that the sufferer 




BOLLINGBROOK, PETERSBURG 



was carried into the cellar for safety. One cannon-ball 
went tearing entirely through the house. General Philips 
is said to have exclaimed, " Why will they not let me die 
in peace." He did die here on the thirteenth of May. 

The Marquis de Chastellux, in his Memoirs, describes 
a visit to Bollingbrook soon after the surrender of York- 
town. The mistress of the old homestead at that time was 
Mrs. Mary Boiling, widow of Robert Boiling, of Bolling- 
brook, and daughter of Colonel Thomas Tabb, of Clay 
Hill, Amelia County. The son to whom Chastellux refers 

* Picture from Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution, pub- 
lished 1850, vol. 2, p. 339. 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 95 

was Robert Boiling, who had served in the Revolution as 
a captain of volunteer cavalry and who had married on 
November 4, 1781, Mary, daughter of Robert Boiling, of 
Chellow. 

According to Chastellux, Mrs. Boiling was one of the 
greatest landholders in Virginia, and proprietor of half the 
town of Petersburg, including the tobacco warehouses. 

He says, " Mrs. Boiling's house, or rather houses, for 
she has two on the same line resembling each other which 







CENTRE HILL, PETERSBURG 

One of the Boiling homes, now owned by Mr. C. H. Davis 

she proposes to join together, are situated on the summit 
of a considerable slope which rises from the level of the 
town of Petersburg. This slope and the vast platform on 
which the house is built are covered with grass which affords 
excellent pasturage, and are also her property. It was 
formerly surrounded with rails, and she raised a number 
of fine horses there, but the English burned the fences and 
carried away a great number of the horses. On our arrival 
we were saluted by Miss Boiling, a young lady of fifteen, 
possessing all the freshness of her age; she was followed 



96 



VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 



by her mother, brother, and sister-in-law. The mother, a 
lady of fifty, has but little resemblance to her country- 
women. She is lively, active and intelligent, knows per- 
fectly how to manage her immense fortune and, what is yet 
more rare, knows how to make good use of it. Her son 
and daughter-in-law I had already met in Williamsburg. 
The young gentleman appears mild and polite, but his wife, 
of only seventeen years of age, is a most interesting ac- 




COLLECTING CHICKEN FEED IN THE OLDEN DAYS 

quaintance, not only from her face and form, which are 
exquisitely delicate, and quite European, but from her 
being also descended from the Indian Princess Pocahontas, 
daughter of King Powhatan." 

In about 1850, one of the wings of the Bollingbrook 
house was destroyed by fire. 

BATTERSEA 

Just above Petersburg, on the banks of the Appomat- 
tox, is Battersea. Of this imposing villa — the home of the 
Banister family — the Marquis de Chastellux, who visited 
it during the Revolution, writes : " It is decorated in the 
Italian rather than in the English or American style, hav- 
ing three porticoes at the three principal entrances, each 
of them supported by four columns." He says the house 
was occupied by " an inhabitant of Carolina, called Nelson, 
who had been driven from his country by the war, which 
followed him to Petersburg." 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 97 

The first of the Banisters in this country was the 
Reverend John Banister, 13 a distinguished naturalist, who 
was living in Charles City County in 1689, and in the next 
year received a grant of land in Bristol Parish. While on 
a botanical excursion, in 1692, he slipped and fell from 
rocks on the Roanoke River and was killed. His son, John, 
who was collector for the Upper James, vestryman of 
Bristol Parish and justice of Prince George County, owned 
land near the present site of Petersburg, which was doubt- 




BATTERSEA, NEAR PETERSBURG 

less identical with the Battersea estate. He was the father 
of Colonel John Banister, of Battersea, who was a burgess 
from Dinwiddie County, member of the Revolutionary 
conventions and lieutenant colonel of cavalry in the Revo- 
lutionary Army, and in 1778-1779 a member of Congress. 
Colonel Banister was twice married, first to Martha, daugh- 
ter of Colonel Theodorick Bland, of " Cawsons," and 
afterwards to Anne, daughter of President John Blair 

13 Horner, The History of the Blair, Banister and Braxton 
Families (Philadelphia, 1898). 



98 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

of the Colonial Council. By his first marriage he had three 
children, but this branch of the family is now extinct. By 
his marriage with Anne Blair he left two sons, Theodorick 
Blair and John Monro Banister. 

MANSFIELD 

Mansfield, near Petersburg, was the home of Roger 
Atkinson, who emigrated from Cumberland, England, 



MANSFIELD, NEAR PETERSBURG 

about 1750. He had many prominent descendants of his 
own name and in the families of Mayo, Pryor, Page, 
Burwell, Gibson and others. 

SHIRLEY 

Just above the point where the Appomattox River 
enters the James is beautiful old Shirley, in Charles City 
County. 

Four square to the world, three stories high it stands, 
in the midst of a lawn shaded by giant oaks. Rows of 
many-paned dormer windows look out from all four 
sides of its high sloping roof and huge chimneys tower 
above them. The entrances are through square, two- 
storied, pillared porches, and the massive brick walls are 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 101 

checkered with glazed " headers." A glance proclaims it 
the product of prosperity as well as of taste. 

To the rear of the mansion are substantial brick out- 
buildings, at one side lies the flower-garden with its box- 
hedges, old-fashioned roses and beds of sweet lavender and 
mignonette, while the front commands a beautiful view of 
the river. The north porch gives entrance to a great square 
hall, panelled to the ceiling, from which an exceedingly 
striking stairway leads to upper regions of airy, white- 
panelled bedrooms. The architectural details in this hall, 
and in the two stately drawing-rooms and the dining-room 
are most attractive. Mantels, door-frames and cornices 
are enriched with beautiful carving. Over some of the 
doors are quaint transoms with tiny, odd-shaped panes of 
glass in them, while above others are mounted ancient 
hatchments bearing the arms of the Hill family. 

The family history of Shirley, like that of Brandon, is 
illustrated by a splendid collection of old mahogany, por- 
traits, brasses and silver, for, also like Brandon, the estate 
has never been in the market. 

Just when Shirley was built is not known. The planta- 
tion was granted in 1660 to Colonel Edward Hill, 14 a lead- 
ing man in the Colony, a member of the House of Burgesses, 
of which he was sometime speaker, and of his Majesty's 
Council. He had lived for a time in Maryland, and in 
1646, during the rebellion there, was chosen governor by 
the insurrectionary party, but was taken prisoner by Gov- 
ernor Calvert. Besides being a law-maker he was a mili- 
tary man and was commander-in-chief of Henrico and 
Charles City Counties. In 1656, he commanded a force 
of Colonists and friendly Indians in a battle with some 
hostile Indians near the Falls of James River and the name 
Bloody Run, given to a stream now within the limits of 
Richmond, still remains to testify to the fierceness of the 

14 Hill family: Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 
iii, 156-159. 



102 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

conflict. 1 "' Colonel Hill's forces were badly routed and the 
" mighty Tottapottomoy," who commanded his Indian 
allies, was killed. - The defeat aroused the displeasure of 
the Assembly and Colonel Hill was disfranchised and fined, 
by way of punishment. 10 

Colonel Hill died about 1663 and his handsome estate 
was inherited by his son Colonel Edward Hill II (1637- 
1700) , of Shirley, " one of his Majesty's honorable Council 
of State, Colonel and Commander-in-Chief of the Counties 
of Charles City and Surry, Judge of his Majesty's high 
Court of Admiralty, and sometime Treasurer of Vir- 
ginia." He was an adherent of Governor Berkeley's dur- 
ing Bacon's Rebellion and was disfranchised by Bacon's 
Assembly. His dust lies in a massive tomb bearing the 
Hill coat-of-arms, in the Shirley graveyard, and his por- 
trait, that of a handsome and elegant gentleman in crim- 
son velvet and lace, and flowing peruke, adorns the walls 
of the house, along with those of many of his family and 
kindred — Carters, Byrds, Randolphs, Lees and others. 
His wife, who was the daughter of Sir Edward Williams, 
of Wales, is represented as a young, rarely beautiful dame, 
and her daughter, Elizabeth (who married Honorable 
John Carter II), is strikingly like her — a lovely girl, with 
her arms filled with flowers. 

Especially interesting is this young girl, Elizabeth Hill, 
for the death of her brother, Colonel Edward Hill III, 
without male descendants, made her the heiress of Shirley, 
and it was by her marriage, in 1723, with John Carter 
(who died in 1742), of Corotoman, eldest son of Robert 
(" King") Carter, that Shirley passed from the Hill to 
the Carter family, in which it has ever since remained. 
About a year before his marriage the new master of Shirley 
had been appointed secretary of Virginia, and as " Secre- 

15 Campbell, History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion 
of Virginia, pp. 233-234. 

ic a Defence of Colonel Edward Hill," in Virginia Magazine 
of History and Biography, iii, 239-252, 341-349; Hening, 
Statutes at Large . . . of Virginia, ii, 364-365. 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 103 

tary Carter " he was known for the rest of his days. He 
has been described as " a man of integrity and ability, 
managing large domestic affairs with prudence and skill 
and filling ably high political offices." His portrait, too, 
in velvet and lace, is to be seen at Shirley, as is also that 
of his son and heir, Charles Carter ( 1732-1806) of Shirley, 
in the quieter, though still picturesque, garb of a generation 
later. 

Charles Carter was a burgess and member of Revo- 
lutionary Conventions. Twice married — first to his cousin 
Mary Carter, daughter of Charles Carter, of Cleve, and 
after her death to Anne Butler Moore, daughter of 
Bernard Moore and Katherine, daughter of Governor 
Alexander Spotswood — he was the father of twenty-three 
children, who inter-marrying with the Randolphs, Lees, 
Braxtons, Burwells, Nelsons, Fitzhughs, Berkeleys, and 
other families of the old regime in Virginia, left numerous 
descendants, who hold Shirley in tender regard. One of 
his daughters — Elizabeth — was the grandmother of Bishop 
Alfred M. Randolph, and another, Anne, became the wife 
of " Light Horse Harry " Lee, and the mother of General 
Robert E. Lee. General Lee was a frequent visitor at 
Sliirley, and in his letters 17 makes affectionate allusions to 
this noble old homestead. 

The last master of Shirley, Captain Robert Randolph 
Carter, a gallant officer in the United States Navy and 
afterward in the Confederate Navy, went to Maryland for 
a bride — Miss Louise Humphreys, of Annapolis. By her 
many charms of mind and character " Miss Lou," as she 
was called far and near, early made a large place for her- 
self in the heart of Virginia — and kept it throughout her 
life. Like " Old Miss," of Brandon, she was a notable 
personage, and many there are who, when making the trip 
up and down the James, miss her familiar figure and sweet, 
strong face from among those in the group on the landing, 

17 Lee, Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee 
(New York, 1904). 



104 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

and the opportunity to step ashore for a moment for a 
grasp of her hand and the word of cheery, cordial greet- 
ing always so ready on her tongue. Upon her death, in 
1906, her daughters, Mrs. Bransford and Mrs. Oliver, be- 
came mistresses of Shirley. 

MALVERN HILL 

Not far above Shirley lies the Malvern Hill plantation 
where formerly stood one of the most attractive as well as 
one of the oldest homesteads in Virginia. 




MALVERN HILL, HENRICO COUNTY 



It was built by Thomas Cocke, son of Richard Cocke 
(circa 1600-1665), the first of that name in Virginia. 18 

This estate derives its name from the [Malvern Hills in 
England. Toward the close of the eighteenth century, the 
estate was sold, by James Powell Cocke, to Robert 
Nelson. 19 



18 Cocke family: Virginia Magazine of History and B'ography, 
iii, 282-292, 405-414 ; iv, 86-96, 212-217, 322-332, 431-450. 

19 A younger son of Honorable William Nelson and Elizabeth 
Burwell. 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 10.5 

It has been the fate of this old plantation to be often 
the seene of war. Lafayette camped there during the 
Revolution; in the War of 1812 Virginia Militia was there; 
and as the field of battle between Generals Lee and McClel- 
lan, in the War between the States, Malvern Hill will 
always have a place in history. 

The Malvern Hill house was destroved bv fire about 
1905. 

WILTON 

Wilton,* just below Richmond, is referred to in some 
very early records as " the land's end " — which shows how 
remote it seemed to the first settlers. The present house, 
a fine old brick mansion, stands upon a green terrace over- 
looking the James, nearly opposite the beautiful and his- 
toric " Falling Creek." As is usual in Virginia houses 
of its class and period, the walls of its wide hall and great 
square rooms are enriched with handsome woodwork, 
and the windows are so deeply recessed that persons occu- 
pying the window-seats would be entirely hidden by the 
curtains. 

Wilton house was built about the middle of the eigh- 
teenth century by William Randolph III (died 1761), a 
younger son of William Randolph II (1681-1742), of 
Turkey Island. 20 Upon his death it was inherited by his 
son Peyton, who married Lucy Harrison, daughter of Ben- 
jamin Harrison, signer of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. The Randolphs owned it until about the beginning 
of the War between the States, when the heiress of the 
family married Edward C. Mayo, of Richmond, Virginia. 
Since then the estate has frequently changed hands. 

During the Randolphs' time at Wilton a large collection 
of their family portraits hung on the panelled walls. These 
are now the property of Mr. Edward C. Mayo, Jr., of 
Richmond. Among them is one of Anne Randolph, 

* See illustration, page 107. 

20 Randolph family : William and Mary Quarterly, vii, 122- 
124, 195-197; viii, 119-122, 263-265; ix, 182-183, 250-252. 



106 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

daughter of William Randolph, the builder of Wilton 
house, called " Nancy Wilton," to distinguish her from a 
cousin who bore the same name. She was noted for beauty 
and charm and had many suitors. She finally accepted 
Benjamin Harrison and became mistress of Brandon, but 
died young, leaving no children. Thomas Jefferson was 
one of her contemporaries and admirers, and she is referred 
to in some of his youthful letters. In one of these he says, 
" Ben Harrison has gone courting to Wilton." 

During the excitement the rumored approach of the 
United States steamer Pawnee to Richmond caused in 
the early part of the War between the States, earthworks 
were thrown up at Wilton, and part of the plantation lies 
opposite Drewry's Bluff, so well known during the war. 

AMPTHILL 

Just across the river from Wilton stands an old mansion 
whose chief characteristics are dignity and strength. This 
is Ampthill — a big square house with massive brick walls, 
a square white porch and a steep Dutch roof flanked on 
either hand by a square brick out-building as massive as 
itself. Within, the high-pitched rooms are also big and 
square, and they and the wide hall are panelled from floor 
to ceiling with solid oak. The windows are protected by 
panelled inside shutters of the same wood, while huge brass 
locks and hinges make fast the thick oak doors. 

It was built in 1732 by Henry Gary (1675 ?-1749 ) , 21 who 
superintended the building of the Governor's Palace and 
the State House in Williamsburg, and also the rebuilding 
of William and Mary College when it was destroyed by 
fire. Upon his death, in 1750, Ampthill passed to his son 
Archibald Gary (1721-1787) , 22 the celebrated Revolu- 
tionary patriot, and chairman of the committee in the Vir- 
ginia Convention of 1776, which brought in the resolution 

21 Cary family: The Critic (Richmond, Va.). 

22 For an excellent sketch of Archibald Cary, see Grigsby's 
The Virginia Convention of 1776 (Richmond, 1855), p. 90 et seq. 




WILTON, HENRICO COUNTY 

The River Front. 




POWHATAN, HENRICO COUNTY 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 109 




AMPTHILL, CHESTERFIELD COUNTY 




FALLING CREEK MILL, CHESTERFIELD COUNTY 

directing the Virginia members of Congress to move for 
entire independence of Great Britain. From his force of 
character and determination he was known as " Old Iron." 



110 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Ampthill has since had various owners — the families 
of Temple and Watkins having enjoyed the longest tenure. 

Within the original bounds of the Ampthill plantation 
was beautiful Falling Creek, with its arched stone bridge 
and its quaint old mill, where the first iron-works in 
America were established, under John Berkeley, in 1619. 
The works were abandoned in 1622, after the Indian mas- 
sacre in which Berkeley and all of his men were murdered, 
and during the Revolution the furnaces were destroyed by 
Tarleton and his troopers. 

EPPINGTON 

The early history of the Eppes family has been told in 
connection with " Appomattox." Lt-Col. Francis Eppes, 
a brother of John Eppes, ancestor of the " Appomattox " 
line, was killed in battle with the Indians in 1678 and was 
succeeded by his eldest son, Col. Francis Eppes (1659- 
1718) , long a member of the House of Burgesses for Hen- 
rico. His son, a third Col. Francis Eppes, who died in 
1734, was also a Burgess for Henrico, and owned large 
landed property where Eppington was afterwards built. 
Richard Eppes, son of the last named, who was for several 
terms a Burgess for Chesterfield County, died in 1765, 
and was succeeded by his son Francis Eppes, of Epping- 
ton (1747-1808), two of whose daughters, Lucy and 
Mary, married, respectively, Archibald and Richard N. 
Thweatt, while his son John Wayles Eppes (1773-1823) 
was U. S. Senator and married a daughter of Thomas 
Jefferson. Eppington was inherited by the Thweatts, and 
since it was sold by them has passed through several hands. 

The following is an extract from a letter, written in 
1856, by Francis Eppes, son of John W. Eppes, to Henry 
S. Randall, the biographer of Jefferson: 

" You ask me for a description of Eppington, but 
such an impression, as I can now give, must be considered 
an imperfect sketch. The mansion-house itself, an old- 
fashioned, two-story building, with a hipped roof in the 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 111 

centre, and wings on the sides, with a long hall or passage 
in front, running from one wing to the other and opening 
on the offices, and with piazzas in front and rear, was 
placed at the extreme side of a large level or lawn, covered 
with green sward, extending to a considerable distance in 
front, and declining on the left side as you entered, and 
in the rear of the house to the low grounds of the Appo- 
mattox, a lnile^ QJf. In front, and over the neighborhood 
road which skirted the lawn, was situated the garden, 
long famous in the vicinity for its fine vegetables and fruit ; 
and to the right of the lawn, as you entered, was an ex- 




EPPINGTON, CHESTERFIELD COUNTY 

tensive orchard of the finest fruit, with the stables be- 
tween, at the corner and on the road. The mansion, painted 
of a snowy white, with green blinds to the windows, and 
its rows of offices at the end, was almost imbedded in a 
beautiful double row of the tall Lombardy poplar — the 
most admired of all trees in the palmy days of old Vir- 
ginia — and this row reached to another double row or 
avenue which skirted one side of the lawn, dividing it 
from the orchard and stables. The lawn in front was closed 
in by a fence with a small gate in the middle and a large 
one on either extremity, one opposite the avenue of 



112 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

poplars, and the other at the end of the carriage-way 
which swept around it. 

" The plantation was quite an extensive one, and in the 
days of my grandfather, Francis Eppes, Sen., was re- 
markably productive. Indeed, it could hardly have been 
otherwise, under such management as his; for he was emi- 
nent for his skill both in agriculture and horticulture; 
and I have heard Mr. Jefferson, who knew him intimately, 
say of him, that he considered him not only ' the first horti- 
culturist in America,' but, ' a man of the soundest practical 
judgment on all subjects that he had ever known.' ' 

POWHATAN 

When Captain John Smith, Christopher Newport, 
and others, made their first voyage of exploration up 
James River from Jamestown, in June, 1607, they found, 
upon a hill near its north bank and a little below the present 
site of Richmond, a palisaded Indian town named Pow- 
hatan. The Colonists were so charmed with its situation 
and surroundings that they purchased it from the red men 
and Captain Smith named it " None Such." It was more 
than one hundred years after this that Joseph Mayo, who 
came to Virginia from the Island of Barbadoes about 1727, 
bought the estate, restored it to its original name, and built 
himself a commodious brick house overlooking the river.* 
Either he or his descendants surrounded the house with 
beautiful flower-gardens, remembered by persons still 
living. Suggestions of these gardens may still be seen in 
the mock-orange bushes and other old-fashioned shrubs 
which in the months of May and June bloom between the 
dusty railroad tracks and brickyards which have now en- 
croached upon the old place, with a resolution to live above 
their surroundings that is most praiseworthy. Here, too, 
were until very recently to be seen two boulders, one of 
which was, according to a long since exploded tradition, 
the stone upon which Captain Smith's head lay when he 
was rescued by Pocahontas, the other the gravestone of 

* See illustration, page 107. 



HAMPTON ROADS AND LOWER JAMES 113 

Powhatan. Upon one of these boulders is cut the letter M 
and the date 1741. 

Powhatan descended through many generations of 
Mayos, its last owner of the name being Mr. Robert A. 
Mayo, father of Mr. Peter H. Mayo, of Richmond. 

Of late years modern progress has swept away old 
Powhatan, and it has even been necessary to remove the 
bodies of those that slept in the family burying-ground, 
some of whose graves were marked by Colonial tombs bear- 
ing the Mayo arms. These are now to be seen in the Mayo 
section in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia. 

BROOK HILL * 

The dwelling at Brook Hill, the home of Robert 
Williamson, who married his cousin Susanna Williamson, 
was built prior to 1735, and five generations of the family, 
as follows in direct line, were born in the same house — 
most of them in the same room: Robert Williamson, 2d 
(1735-1706), who married Anne Coxe; their son Robert 
Carter Williamson (1796-1871), who married Lucy 
Parke Chamber layne ; their daughter Mary Amanda 
Williamson (1822 1910), who married John Stewart, a 
native of Rothesay, Scotland; their daughter Isobel 
Stewart (1847-1910), who married Joseph Bryan, of 
Eagle Point, and their son John Stewart Bryan. 

In 1842 Brook Hill was purchased by Mr. John 
Stewart, who enlarged the house and made of a portion 
of the grounds a most beautiful park. 

This home has always been celebrated for its hospi- 
tality and Mr. Stewart and his descendants for their 
philanthropic interest in everything that pertains to the 
welfare of the community. 

The dwelling No. 707 E. Franklin Street, which was 
occupied by General Lee from 1861 to 1865 as his war- 
time residence, was in 1892 given by the Stewart family to 
the Virginia Historical Society and has since that time 
been the home of that Society. 

* See illustration at head of Contents. 
8 



PART III 

Richmond, Manchester and the 
Upper James 

richmond 

IN June, 1607, Captain Christopher Newport, Captain 
John Smith and others set out from Jamestown in 
the pinnace, Discovery, to explore the James. Upon 
the tenth they reached the highest point of naviga- 
tion, where they named the shallow waters racing and 
tumbling over a bed of stones and boulders " The Falls," 




MARKETING TOBACCO IN THE OLD DAYS 

and where they " set up a cross " which much puzzled the 
Indians. This was the white man's first appearance at the 
site of the present capital of Virginia. 

In 1733, Colonel William Byrd II, of Westover, laid 

114 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 117 

out a town at the Falls of James River, named Richmond 
—probably because of the resemblance of the site to Rich- 
mond on the Thames. In 1742 the town was incorporated; 
in 1779 it supplanted Williamsburg as the capital of the 
State, and from 1861 to 1865 it was the capital of the 
Confederacy. 

It is situated upon a number of hills — popularly esti- 
mated as seven — and stretches around a beautiful bend of 




THE HOME OF THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH R. ANDERSON, RICHMOND 

the river. It was pronounced by Thackeray, during his 
visit some years before the war, " the most picturesque 
place in America " as well as " the merriest." In April, 
1865, war desolated it and a large section of it was burned, 
but it stands to-day one of the most prosperous and pro- 
gressive, as well as one of the most interesting, cities in 
this country. 

ST. JOHN'S CHURCH 

Crowning what was first known as Richmond Hill — 
afterward as Church Hill — stands, in the midst of a walled 



118 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

graveyard occupying an entire block, old St. John's 
Church. 1 

The graveyard is shady and green. It is thickly 
tenanted, and mouldy and moss-grown tombstones tell in 
prim, old-fashioned phrase of the virtues of those that 
" rest in peace " beneath them, or remind the reader of the 
shortness of life, in metre, whereof the following is a char- 
acteristic sample: 

" Stop my friend as you pass by, 
As you are now so once was I, 
As I am now you soon shall be; 
Prepare my friend to follow me." 

The oldest part of the church was built in 1740. It is 
of wood, painted white, and has a pretty spire and a sweet- 
voiced bell. Some time after the Revolution it was enlarged 
and made into the shape of a cross. Within, the quaint 
sounding-board and shell-shaped font are still to be seen, 
as in its earliest days. When it was the only church and 
largest public building in Richmond, St. John's was some- 
times used for political as well as religious gatherings ; and 
so it happened that within its hallowed walls the patriots 
who made up the Virginia Convention of 1775 assembled 
and heard Patrick Henry's immortal speech ending with 
the words, " Give me liberty or give me death." 

The pew in which the orator stood is still pointed out. 

THE VAN LEW HOUSE 

Also on Church Hill, and not far away from St. John's, 
was the Van Lew House,* best known of late years as the 
home of the famous " Miss Van Lew." It was perhaps 
the stateliest of the Richmond mansions of its time. Cer- 
tainly it adorned the most charming site in the city. It 

1 Moore, History of Henrico Parish and Old St. John's Church, 
Richmond, Va., 161 1-190 ^. The inscriptions on tombstones in 
St. John's Church yard are printed in this book, pp. 413-529. 

* See illustration, page 123. 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 121 

was built when ample grounds and roomy porticoes over- 
looking picturesque " falling " gardens were the fashion, 
and it was situated in a section which became unfashionable 
before the days of cutting up handsome grounds into 
twenty-foot building lots. 

And so the old garden terraced back to the brow of the 
hill, overhanging, and commanding a superb view of James 
River, with its sunny spaces and shady nooks, its hundred 
leaf roses and cool, sparkling spring, was long preserved. 

The house was built (probably near the end of the 
eighteenth century) by Dr. John Adams, son of Mr. 
Richard Adams. 2 Both father and son were gentlemen of 
large fortune and also of large heart, whose pet hobby was 
the advancement and beautifying of Richmond. Dr. 
Adams married Peggy, one of the charming daughters of 
Mr. Geddes Winston, and their home had a brilliant social 
history. It was noted for hospitality and was one of the 
houses in which Lafayette was entertained during his visit 
in 1824. 

After Mr. Adams' death the house was bought by a 
Mr. Van Lew, a northern gentleman, who settled in Rich- 
mond and became a prominent merchant. He and his 
family mingled in the " high society " of Richmond Hill 
until the War between the States, when their sympathy 
with the invading army cut them off. A young daughter 
of the house became noted as a friend of Federal prisoners, 
many of whom she helped to escape. For many years 
after all of her family had passed away " Miss Van Lew " 
lived alone and friendless in the old mansion to which the 
presence of a solitary, hoary dame lent a weird interest. 
With her bent form, thin, clear-cut features, framed in 
gray curls, and her piercing eyes that seemed made for 
peering into hidden mysteries, she might have passed for 
the reincarnation of some ancient svbil. 



2 Adams family: William and Mary College Quarterly Histor- 
ical Magazine, v, 159—16-4. 



122 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

She was accustomed to thrust herself upon public 
notice just once a year — the day on which she paid her 
taxes. Upon that day she always published in the local 
papers, under her signature, an emphatic protest against 
taxation without representation. In 1900 she died, full of 
years, in this old house, which has since been pulled down 
and a public school built on its site. 




OLD MASONIC HALL, RICHMOND 

OLD MASONIC HALL 

Coming down Franklin Street into the valley that lies 
between Church Hill and Shockoe Hill, the tourist finds 
between Eighteenth and Nineteenth Streets an old frame 
house standing back from the public highway. This is 
the oldest building in America, still in use, erected for 
Masonic purposes exclusively. It dates from 1785, when 




VAN LEW OR ADAMS HOUSE, RICHMOND (FRONT 




VAN LEW OR ADAMS HOISE (REAR) 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 125 

its cornerstone was laid, and has been the scene of many 
interesting incidents in the Masonic history of Virginia. 

At a reception given to General Lafayette in this un- 
pretentious old " temple," in 1824, that favorite hero was, 
amid great enthusiasm, made an honorary member of the 
lodge. 



£3 



st%X@$S%5£8X&*iX£mz@*&&> 



nr,-.;<- 



TICKET OF. ADMISSION 

TO BE GIVEJV /JV HO.VOJi 01' 

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UNION HOTEL, 

CITY Or RICHMOND, 




.1. L. 5SJ4, .i. V. 1824. 



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-^38rat&RS&*£s&3 a feast s — v.- 



TICKET FOR MASONIC DINNKR GIVEN IN HONOR OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE 

MONUMENTAL CHURCH 

On the night after Christmas of the year 1811, Rich- 
mond suffered a disaster which put the whole town into 
mourning and caused the building of a church which has 
always been not only one of the chief factors for good, but 
one of the most appealing objects of interest in the city. 
LTpon that awful night the elite of Virginia's Capital, in- 
cluding the governor, George William Smith (1762-1811 ) , 
had gathered in the fashionable theatre on Broad Street, 
between Twelfth and Thirteenth, to witness the tragedy 
of " The Bleeding Nun," as presented by a popular actress 
and her company. When interest was at its height the 
cry of " fire! " was heard above the voices of the actors and 
in a few minutes the house was in flames, and panic reigned. 
The destruction of the building was complete and sixty 
human beings — among them Governor Smith and others 
prominent in official and social life — were burned to death. 



126 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Many were painfully injured, while many more had hair- 
breadth escapes and were made famous by their heroic 
work in saving the lives of others. 

The impression made by the disaster was tremendous. 
The whole country stood aghast. Resolutions and letters 
of sympathy poured into Richmond from every quarter. 
Legislatures and councils all over the United States took 
formal action and churches held memorial services and 
offered prayers for those in affliction. Of course Virginia 
and Richmond were given over to mourning. In Richmond 
there was a marked decline in theatre going and increase in 
church going, which was noticeable for years afterward to 
such a degree that the city became proverbial among 
theatrical managers for its poor support of their offerings. 
Immediately after the fire, the citizens met in the Capitol 
Building to arrange for a suitable monument to those who 
had perished in the flames, and the Monumental Church, 
upon the site of the burned theatre, was the result. All 
creeds and classes were subscribers to the building fund, 
and it was decided by vote that the monument should take 
the form of an Episcopal church. The ashes of those who 
perished in the fire lie under the building and upon a 
marble cenotaph in the porch their names are recorded. 

The " Old Monumental," as it is familiarly called, is a 
noble specimen of architecture — plain, but dignified and 
impressive. Within, its air of solemnity and sacredness 
compels reverence. From the beginning, it has been one 
of the most influential churches in Virginia and many 
prominent men in both Church and State have been in- 
timately connected with it. Bishop Richard Channing 
Moore was its earliest rector — serving at the same time 
that he was Bishop of Virginia — and Chief Justice Mar- 
shall was one of its earliest pew-holders. Edgar Allan 
Poe often worshipped there as a youth. Bishop Dudley, 
of Kentucky, was a pupil in its Sunday-school when a boy, 
and BishopNewton, of Virginia, was called to the Episco- 
pate while its rector. 




MONUMENTAL CHURCH, RICHMOND 




ARCHER HOUSE, RICHMOND 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 129 

THE CRUMP HOUSE 

Upon Twelfth Street, diagonally across Broad Street 
from the Monumental Church, and upon the site now 
occupied by the Memorial Hospital, stood the Crump 
House, built toward the end of the eighteenth century, 
by Mr. Samuel Myers — grandfather of the late Major 
E. T. D. Myers — and during its latter years the home of 
Judge W. W. Crump, who bought it in 1850 and occupied 
it for about a half century. 

During the time of Mr. Myers, who was a naval officer, 
he planted in the grounds an acorn which he brought from 
Africa and from which sprang a notable tree. The gardens 
were extensive and beautiful. " It represented," wrote 
Mrs. Sally Nelson Robins, in an article on the Crump 
House, " as no building now recalled, the ante-bellum es- 
tablishment — mansion, kitchen, laundry, servants' quarters, 
stable, carriage-house, smoke-house, and big yard where 
children played and box-bushes and flowers grew, where 
ladies in morning dresses sat in the rose-clad summer-house 
and read or did embroidery, while other ladies called and 
chatted of house-keeping and books and perhaps of their 
neighbors." 

Upon the night of the theatre fire — December 26, 1811 
— many of the victims of that tragedy were brought to 
the Myers home and laid upon the parlor floor and stains 
could be traced upon the boards for years afterwards. 

Judge Crump, with his greatness of soul and intellect, 
his striking personality and charm of manner and conver- 
sation, with his books around him, and with the woman 
who was his helpmate in the highest sense of the word at 
his side, would have made any house notable. 

This massive old homestead with its spacious rooms, its 
high carved mantels, its big open fires whose light played 
upon old silver and mahogany and rare pictures, made an 
ideal setting for the great lawyer, the ripe scholar, the 
gracious host. His home was a centre of intellectual life, 
a resort of cultured, Christian gentle-folk. 



130 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

No one who ever heard Judge Crump talk could fail 
to deplore the fact that he never put his observations and 
reminiscences upon paper. Many were the distinguished 
men he had known, many the important events he had wit- 
nessed, and his conversation about them made a series 
of clear, bright pictures. When Charles Dickens visited 
Richmond, the Judge was one of the committee appointed 
to give him a fitting welcome, and his impressions of the 
novelist and his wife, as they appeared at the banquet given 
in their honor, would have made an interesting chapter in 
a book of " recollections." 

THE WHITE HOUSE OF THE CONFEDERACY 

With Twelfth Street we reach the eastern boundary 
of what was known in the stately days of yore as the " Court 
Eind " of town. Following this thoroughfare northward 
as far as Clay Street, one sees a large, gray stucco mansion 
with a double pillared portico. This is the beautiful 
" White House of the Confederacy." It stands upon the 
brink of a deep ravine and those who remember it "as it 
used to be " tell of a " falling garden " whose terraces ran 
a good way down the hill, and of bright spaces of old- 
fashioned flowers and j)otted shrubs from foreign climes 
— conspicuous among which were fruitful hazelnut bushes. 

The house was built in 1818 for the residence of Dr. 
John Brockenbrough, 3 long president of the Bank of 
Virginia, and his wife, who was Mrs. Gabriella Harvie 
Randolph, daughter of Colonel John Harvie and widow 
of Thomas Mann Randolph, of " Tuckahoe." Dr. Brock- 
enbrough had been one of the committee of three appointed 
to direct the building of a church as a memorial to the vic- 
tims of the theatre fire and in planning his home he chose 
for the architect, Mr. Mills, whose design for the Monu- 
mental Church had won great praise. Long before this the 
intimacy between Dr. Brockenbrough and John Randolph, 

3 Brockenbrough family : Virginia Magazine of History and 
Biography, v, 447-449 ; vi, 82-85. 




CRUMP HOUSE, RICHMOND 




THE WHITE HOUSE OF THE CONFEDERACY, RICHMOND 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 133 

of Roanoke, which continued to the end of Randolph's life, 
had begun, and when the new house was completed 
Randolph was a frequent visitor there, and often for weeks 
at a time " the most agreeable and interesting inmate you 
can possibly imagine," wrote Dr. Brockenbrough to a 
friend. 

The acquaintance began during the famous Aaron 
Burr trial in 1807, when Dr. Brockenbrough was a mem- 
ber of the jury and John Randolph its foreman, and from 
that time on the friendship between these two men, as it 
a2:>pears in the letters that passed between them and in 
those of Randolph to other friends, published in the Life 
of John Randolph, runs like a bright thread through the 
sombre history of that fascinating personality. John 
Randolph's sweetheart, the fair and engaging Maria 
Ward, was also intimate at the Brockenbrough home, and 
when her affair with Randolph was broken off, she en- 
trusted his letters in a sealed packet to the care of Mrs. 
Brockenbrough, with the request that after her death that 
lady should burn them without breaking the seal. As 
Mrs. Brockenbrough was a woman who could keep a secret 
even from herself, the contents of the interesting packet 
will never be known. 

It was said that Dr. Brockenbrough built his house 
with an especial view to entertaining, and it seems to have 
become a centre of both intellectual and gay society. Chief 
Justice Marshall and other distinguished members of the 
Bar and of the famous " Barbecue Club " were intimate 
there and were fond of discussing politics and the classics 
with Mrs. Brockenbrough, whom Blennerhassett, writing 
in 1807, of affairs and people in Richmond, described as 
" the nearest approximation to a savant and bel-esprit." 
The lovely Randolph girls, Mrs. Brockenbrough's nieces, 
and later on, the beauties and belles of the Seddon and 
Morson connections, may not have cared for politics and 
the classics, but many of the most distinguished men of the 
time, in Richmond and out of it, came to the old house to 
dance with and pay court to them. In one of John 



134 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Randolph's letters to his friend he says, " Mr. Speaker 
related to me that you had given a splendid party; for 
so I interpreted the word fandango used hy him; " and 
many were the occasions when the music of the " many 
twinkling feet " held full sway. 

Dr. Brockenbrough finally sold the house to Mr. James 
M. Morson, who after a few years' residence in it sold it 
to his cousin and law-partner, Honorable James A. Sed- 
don, member of Congress from Virginia and secretary of 
war of the Confederate States. Mr. Morson and Mr. 
Seddon married sisters, the lovely Bruce girls, Ellen and 
Sally, and during their time the house continued to be a 
centre of all that was best and brightest in the Virginia 
of the old regime. Says a beau of the period, still living, 
" My impressions of the White House of the Confederacy 
before the war make a poem in my memory." Not long 
before the war Mr. Seddon sold the house to Mr. Lewis 
D. Crenshaw, who occupied it for a brief period, during 
which he added the top story. 

The curtain was rung down on the brilliant drama 
which the social history of ante-bellum Richmond made, to 
rise on the tragedy for which the city lent itself as a stage 
during four years of civil warfare. Again the house at 
the corner of Twelfth and Clay Streets occupied a con- 
spicuous place in the setting. Echoes of viol and wedding- 
bell were now lost in the alarums of rifle and cannon. The 
stately rooms of that house where so bright the lights had 
" shone o'er fair women and brave men," were become the 
council chambers of war and government. In place of the 
procession of carriages filled with ladies and gentlemen 
arrayed for a fete, filing up the street toward the house, 
might occasionally be seen a very different pageant — 
President Davis and General Lee riding side by side, in 
earnest conversation, and clattering behind them their 
staff officers. 

In the room to the right of the entrance hall, where 
many a time a fair girl had waited the coming of gallant 
lover, the President's wife now sat night after night and 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 137 

listened with strained ear and anxious face for the sound 
of horses' hoofs on the street outside, for mayhap a courier 
would come in the night with dispatches for her husband, 
indulging in uneasy sleep in the room above. When the 
capital of the Confederacy was moved from Montgomery, 
Alabama, to Richmond, the city bought the house, spent 
$8,000.00 furnishing it and tendered it to Mr. Davis, who 
agreed to accept it only upon condition that the Confeder- 
ate Government should pay full rent for it. The house 
now began to be known by the name which added the crown- 
ing touch to its glory— the White House of the Confed- 
eracy — and now the dames and the squires, the belles and 
the beaux who had danced and feasted there bent their 
steps that way to pay court to the President and his lady. 

Upon the evacuation of Richmond, United States 
troops under General Weitzel took possession of the White 
House of the Confederacy for headquarters, and held it 
until September, 1870, when it was restored to the city. 
In June, 1884, it became the property of the Confederate 
Memorial Literary Society, and as the home of a priceless 
collection of Confederate relics the " Confederate Mu- 
seum " is to-day one of the centres of interest in the city. 

THE VALENTINE MUSEUM 

Tom Moore, the loved Irish poet, writing of his sojourn 
in Richmond, in 1803, says that the most agreeable gentle- 
men he met were " some Whig lawyers, one of whom, Mr. 
JohnWickham, was fit to adorn any court." Mr.Wickham's 
residence, built in 1812, now the home of the Valentine 
Museum, stands upon Clay Street, just one block above 
the White House of the Confederacy, and, like it, was 
planned by Benjamin Mills, the architect of Monumental 
Church. Thanks to the artistic sense of the Valentines, so 
long its owners, this superb old mansion has been perfectly 
preserved. To the stranger in the street it presents a front 
reserved, dignified, plain. But a touch of the brass knocker 
admits one to the handsomest interior possessed by any 
house ever built in Richmond. From a perfectly propor- 



138 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

tioned hall, winding mahogany stairs lead to a beautiful 
gallery. Polished mahogany doors with silver knobs and 
hinges open from this hall into the stately rooms built 
around it. Striking details of these rooms are sculptured 
marble mantels brought from Florence; frescoed walls; 
carved door and window frames — white enamelled with the 
delicate relief- work gilded with gold leaf ; great mirrors in 
Florentine frames, chandeliers of burnished brass. 

At the rear of the mansion, a pillared portico, with a 
gracefully curved outline, embowered in honeysuckle, Vir- 
ginia creeper, and purple and white wistaria, looks upon an 
old garden, surrounded by a high, ivy-covered brick wall. 
A fountain makes music in the midst of the garden, and 
through a rose-garlanded arch we may have such glimpstes 
as the vine-clad trellises and shrubbery will permit of 
figures in white marble of the goddesses of Beauty, 
Flowers, and the Harvest, peeping out among the green. 
Every olden-time flower is to be found in the trim parterres 
divided by narrow brick walks, and many goodly fruit 
trees and grape vines on trellises and latticed arbors vie 
with the flowers in making the garden a place of delight. 
In one corner a century-old magnolia tree makes June 
fragrant. 

In the Wickhams' time the house was the scene of 
brilliant festivities ; for in those days of plenty and of good 
servants Virginia hospitality was in full flower in Rich- 
mond, and it was Mr. Wickham's pleasure to entertain in 
honor of " men of parts " visiting the city. 

In the year 1807 the famous trial of Aaron Burr, for 
treason, drew the attention of all America upon Richmond 
and upon Mr. Wickham. The prominence of the prisoner 
at the bar, the political excitement at the time and the 
brilliant legal talent employed united in bringing throngs 
of people to the city. John Marshall was the presiding 
judge, Wickham the leader in the defence, and John 
Randolph, of Roanoke, foreman of the jury. Among the 
witnesses were General Wilkinson, of the Army, and 
Andrew Jackson, afterward president of the United 




THE HALL AT VALENTINE MUSEUM, RICHMOND 




VALENTINE MUSEUM, FORMERLY WICKHAM HOUSE, RICHMOND 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 141 

States. Burr's acquittal was generally supposed to be chiefly 
due to the eloquence and ability of Mr. Wickham. After 
the trial Burr dined with Mr. Wickham and his beautiful 
wife, who was noted as a tactful and charming hostess. 

In course of time the Wickham residence became the 
property of the Ballard family, and many of the beautiful 
features of its interior are said to have been added by Mr. 
Ballard. Its next owner was Mr. Alexander Brooks. 

In later years it was long the residence of Mr. Mann S. 
Valentine, during part of which period Mr. Edward 
V. Valentine, the sculptor, made his home there. At Mr. 
Valentine's death he generoush r bequeathed this residence 
with his valuable collections, and an endowment for main- 
tenance as a museum, to the city of Richmond, and there 
may now be seen, in addition to many other objects of 
historical and artistic value, one of the finest collections of 
Indian relics in the world. 

THE McCANCE HOUSE 

One of the principal show places of the " Court End " 
of town stood upon the corner of Leigh and Eighth Streets. 
This house was built about a hundred years ago by the 
widow and son of Mr. John Hayes, of the " Falls Planta- 
tion," just below Manchester — a gentleman of large wealth 
and owner and publisher of the Virginia Gazette. The 
house was commodious and handsome and a Greek portico 
at the rear overlooked a garden which extended to Clay 
Street. From the Hayes family the property passed, by 
purchase, to Mr. Thomas Green, a successful lawyer and 
familiar figure in Richmond society in the first half of the 
nineteenth century. 

Mr. Green at once turned his attention to the beautify- 
ing of his home, making the flower-garden his chief pride. 
Across the garden ran a deep ravine with a stream flowing 
through it. Mr. Green terraced the ravine and by check- 
ing the flow of the brook with a stone dam made a little 
lake, which was spanned by a rustic bridge. Upon the lake 
a small boat floated, and near the shore stood a tiny chalet- 



142 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

like cottage, covered with bark. In another part of the 
grounds was a bear-pit, containing several black bears, 
while here and there among the shrubbery and flowers 
gleamed pieces of white marble sculpture from Italy. 
Among these was a fountain representing the birth of 
Venus from the waves of the sea. A marble scallop shell 
rested upon the backs of two dolphins which spouted water 
over a life-sized figure of the goddess, as she stood poised 
on the edge of the shell. Other figures represented " The 
Seasons," " Flora," " Ceres," " Ganymede," etc. Some of 
these are now preserved in the garden of the Valentine 

Museum. 

One of the attractions of the garden was a fine spring 
which was a favorite drinking place. In later years the 
charming old mansion was long the home of the McCance 
family. When the emigration of fashion to the West End 
reached high tide, it gave way to a row of tenements which 
now occupies the site of house and garden. 

THE MARSHALL HOUSE 

Upon the corner of Marshall and Ninth Streets stands 

a plain, but massive and dignified old brick mansion, the 

home of Richmond's greatest citizen and the most famous 

of American judges— Chief Justice John Marshall (1755- 

1835). 4 

To his neighbors " the old Chief," as he was affection- 
ately called, was as much beloved for his domestic and 
social gifts as he was admired for his ability and learning. 
As a member of the " Barbecue Club," made up of the 
leading men of Richmond, and joining with the zest of a 
boy in his favorite game of throwing quoits, we see the 
intellectual giant at play, and it is a pleasant sight. Over 
this old home he presided as a tender husband and father, 
kind master, gracious host. 

Until the last few years the house was owned and occu- 
pied by his descendants, who also sat Sunday after Sunday 

4 Paxton, The Marshall Family. Cincinnati, 1885. 




McCANCE HOUSE, RICHMOND 




GAMBLE HOUSE, RICHMOND 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 145 

in his pew in Monumental Church; but it has since been 
bought from his granddaughters, by the city, and turned 
over to the Association for the Preservation of Virginia 
Antiquities. Its stately rooms, with their beautifully 
carved mantels and cornices, contain many memories of 
the " Old Chief " and his family and has become a mecca 
to visitors of Richmond. 

THE STATE CAPITOL 

About two blocks away from the Marshall House 
stands the old Capitol in the midst of its ten-acre " square " 
— the chief attraction of the city still, in spite of the pros- 
perous West End. Indeed, with its appealing natural 
beauty and its associations it must for all time be a centre 
of interest to the visitor in lovely and historic Richmond. 

The plan for the building was furnished by Thomas 
Jefferson when he was minister to France and was taken 
from the Maison Carree, at Nismes. It was begun in 1785 
and finished in 1792, when the Legislature had been meet- 
ing within its walls for some years. The chaste beauty 
of its classic outlines and proportions has been warmly 
admired by persons of taste. It stands upon the brow of 
a hill with the green square sloping away from it and 
ancient trees arching the walks that lead to it from all 
directions. Nearby stands the splendid Washington 
monument, one of the noblest groups of statuary in 
America. The equestrian statue of Washington, which 
is its central and crowning figure, and most of the other 
figures on the monument, were modelled by Thomas Craw- 
ford, of New York, but as he died before the work was 
finished, those of Thomas Nelson and Andrew Lewis were 
made by Randolph Rogers. Other figures in the group 
surrounding Washington are Patrick Henry, Thomas 
Jefferson, George Mason, and John Marshall. The monu- 
ment was unveiled in 1858. The statues of Henry Clay, 
" Stonewall " Jackson, Governor William Smith, and Dr. 
Hunter McGuire also adorn the Square. The Virginia 
State Library stands within the Square some distance to 

10 



146 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

the rear of the Capitol, while on a line with the library and 
to the north of it stands, at the head of a shady avenue, 
also within the Square — the governor's mansion — a serene, 
dignified and beautiful, but unostentatious Virginia home. 
Much of the history of Virginia has been made within 
the walls of this old Capitol. The Hall of the House of 
Delegates, especially, teems with associations. Within this 
hall at least a part of the celebrated trial of Aaron Burr 
was held; within it met the famous Constitutional Con- 




GOVERNOR'S MANSION, RICHMOND 



vention of 1829-1830, of which Madison, Monroe, Mar- 
shall, John Randolph and many other eminent men of the 
time were members; within it met the " Secession Con- 
vention " of 1861; and within it, during the war that fol- 
lowed, were held the sessions of the Confederate Congress. 
Soon after the Revolution, Houdon, the most famous 
sculptor of the time, came from Paris to Mount Vernon for 
the purpose of making a statue of General Washington. 
This masterpiece of portraiture in white marble, declared 
by Lafayette to be " a facsimile of Washington's person," 




STATE CAPITOL, RICHMOND 




HOME OF CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL, RICHMOND 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 149 

stands in the centre of the Rotunda and is the Capitol's 
chief treasure. 

In 1906 the Capitol was enlarged by the addition of 
two wings harmonizing in architecture with the design of 
the main building. The assembly halls of the House of 
Delegates and State Senate may now be found in these 
new wings, but the historic k ' Hall of the House " has been 
preserved and is now used as the State Agricultural 
Museum. 

In the Capitol basement is the State Land Office where 
may be seen records of land-grants and patents going back 
as far as the year 1623. 

On April 27, 1870, the Capitol was the scene of a fright- 
ful disaster. The Court of Appeals was sitting in a room 
in the northeast corner of the building, and a case of un- 
usual interest had drawn a crowd which packed the apart- 
ment to the doors. Suddenly the floor gave way under 
the unaccustomed weight and went crashing down into the 
hall of the house below, carrying with it a panic-stricken 
mass of humanity. The number of persons killed was sixty- 
five, while two hundred others, more or less, were seriously 
injured. Among the victims were many of Richmond's 
leading citizens. 

THE WESTMORELAND CLUB 

A short walk up Grace Street from the main entrance 
of Capitol Square brings the tourist to one of the gracious 
old roof-trees of former days, which has been preserved 
by becoming the home of the Westmoreland Club. The 
house was begun about 1837, by Mr. James Gray, a 
wealthy tobacco merchant, but was sold by him before it 
was completed, to Judge Robert Stanard, of the Virginia 
Court of Appeals, who finished it and occupied it until his 
death. It was elegantly equij)ped, as befitted its stately 
rooms, with furniture from Paris and carved mantels from 
Italy. 

Judge Stanard had formerly lived in a house on Ninth 
Street, opposite the Capitol Square, where the youthful 



150 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Edgar Allan Poe had been a frequent visitor, as a friend 
of the Stanard boys. Mrs. Stanard won the heart of the 
poet-to-be, by her kindness and sympathy, and to her after- 
wards were addressed the lovely lines, " To Helen," which 
helped to make Poe famous and caused her to be known 
as " Poe's Helen." 

She did not live to accompany her husband and chil- 
dren to their new home. Though he remained a widower, 
Judge Stanard's entertainments were famous — his friend 
Mr. James Lyons often assisting him in doing the honors. 

Upon his death his son, Robert C. Stanard, a dis- 




WESTMOEELAND CLUB, THE STANARD HOUSE, RICHMOND 

tinguished member of the Richmond bar, the State Senate 
and the Constitutional Convention of 1851, inherited the 
house. Mr. Stanard married a beautiful and brilliant 
daughter of Kentucky, and with her as hostess the tra- 
ditions of the house were amply sustained. The brightest 
men of the time flocked to her salon, and Thackeray was 
one of the many men of note entertained by her husband 
and herself. 

After the Stanards' time, their home was owned suc- 
cessively by "Sir. William H. Macfarland and "Sir. James 
Lyons, prominent gentlemen, both of them, and lavish 
hosts. 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 153 

The Westmoreland Club was organized at a meeting 
held January 29, 1877. It assembled first at its own home, 
707 E. Franklin Street, formerly the residence of General 
R. E. Lee, on May 1st of the same year. In 1879 the Club 
purchased its present home, which was then the property of 
Mr. James Lyons. Extensive additions and improvements 
have since been made to the building and the Club, now in 
its 38th year, is one of the most prosperous and noted in 
the United States. 

THE ARCHER HOUSE * 

So small a number of the few of Richmond's old 
mansions that remain are still homes that the mere fact of 
being the residence of a private citizen gives a distinction 
all its own. One whose air of quiet and dignified homelike- 
ness proclaims it to be the possessor of this distinction may 
be seen just a square below the Westmoreland Club at the 
corner of Franklin and Sixth Streets. It makes a charm- 
ing picture and its interior is equally charming. It was 
built early in the last century by Mr. Cunningham, a mer- 
chant, from plans drawn by Mr. Mills, the architect of 
the Monumental Church, the White House of the Con- 
federacy, and the Valentine Museum. Mr. Cunningham 
sold it to Dr. George Watson, a distinguished physician 
of the time, and it is still owned and occupied by his 
descendants, the Archer family. Upon its door hangs the 
polished brass knocker that responded to the touch of the 
gentle guests of nearly a hundred years ago, and a high 
brick wall around the yard still secures to the premises the 
privacy so dear to the heart of the modest old-time folk. 

THE CASKIE HOUSE 

Two squares further on, upon the corner of Main and 
Fifth Streets, stands the quiet and attractive Caskie home, 
which was built by Mr. Tate, Mayor of Richmond, and 
after his death descended to his nephew, who was a second 
" Mayor Tate." Since the time of the Tates, the house 
has been successively the home of the Neilson, Gray and 

* See illustration, p. 127. 



154 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Caskie families. It is as interesting architecturally within 
as without, a striking feature being a beautiful octagon- 
shaped drawing-room. 

The tourist, finding himself suddenly face to face with 
the Archer and Caskie homes, upon their busy corners, 
has a pleasant sense of having stumbled upon a bit of re- 
poseful yesterday in the midst of bustling, strenuous to-day. 

THE ALLAN HOUSE 

Diagonally opposite the Caskie House on the southeast 
corner of Main and Fifth Streets, now occupied by brick 
tenements, once stood an old mansion famous for its social 
history, and as the home, for a brief period, of Edgar Allan 
Poe. * 

The house was built in 1798 by David Meade Randolph, 
United States Marshall for Virginia. According to the 
contract, Mr. Randolph was to pay for the construction 
of his home " £100 worth of corn, £50 worth of oyster 
shells, delivered at Rocketts, £100 worth of goods (£25 
of which to be in wet goods ) and the remainder in money, 
to be paid by Christmas Day, 1800." It was far enough 
up town, in those days, to be almost in the country, and 
must have been very like a country place, with its spreading 
lawn shaded with pine trees and, at the rear, its " falling 
garden " filled with fruits and flowers. Like a country 
place too, it had a name, for Mr. Randolph quaintly com- 
bining his own name — David — with that of his wife — 
Molly — called it " Moldavia," and as " Moldavia " it was 
long known. 

Mrs. Randolph was noted as a wit and also as a house- 
keeper. In her prosperous days she was called " the 
queen " by the guests who thronged her hospitable home, 
and when reverses came she showed she could be queen of 
the kitchen as well as the drawing-room, for she opened 
upon Cary Street a boarding house which achieved im- 
mediate success, and whose " board " became as famous as 
that at " Moldavia " had been. She published her recipes 
in a cook-book which is still an authority in many an old 
Virginia home. 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 155 

In 1805 " Moldavia " was sold to Mr. Joseph Gallego, 
owner of the Gallego Mills, who occupied it for twenty 
years and then sold it to Mr. John Allan, whose brilliant 
adopted son, Edgar Allan Poe, was then about seventeen 
years old. There is a great uncertainty as to just how long 
Poe lived at the Allan house, for soon after Mr. Allan 
bought it, Poe entered the University of Virginia and later 
went to Boston to live. He seems, at least, to have un- 




ALLAN HOUSE, RICHMOND 

doubtedly made his home there during a good part of the 
year 1826. 

The Allans made the beautiful interior of their house 
the background for superb furniture and artistic orna- 
ments brought from Europe. They had the social gifts 
of true Richmonders, and their home was famous for its 
brilliant entertainments. Among notables from across the 
water who enjoyed its hospitality at different times were 
Charles Dickens, Lord and Lady Napier, Lord and Lady 
Lyons, and the Honorable Miss Murray. The old Rich- 
mond Enquirer contains an elaborate accoimt of a fancy 
ball given at the AJlan House, with the initials of the belles 



156 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

and beaux present, and the characters they represented, 
and detailed descriptions of their costumes. 

Long after the Allans 1 day their home was once more 
the scene of festivity when the citizens of Richmond, in 
1881, gave there a grand ball to the distinguished delega- 
tions sent over by the governments of France and Germany 
to represent those countries at the Yorktown Centennial. 

THE GAMBLE HOUSE 

A few of those who enjoy the charms of Gamble's Hill 
— its green terraces, its sweet breezes and its superb view 
of the river, town and country — remember the Gamble 
mansion which gave the hill its name.* 

The house was built in the year 1-800, by Colonel John 
Harvie, a Revolutionary patriot, and member of the Con- 
vention of 1775 and of Congress, but was barely finished 
when he died, and Mrs. Harvie sold it to Major Robert 
Gamble (1754-1810) , 5 a Revolutionary officer and com- 
mander of the first company to enter the fort at the storm- 
ing of Stony Point. 

Major Gamble came to Richmond from Augusta 
County, where he had married Catherine, daughter of 
Major John Gratton, who had made herself as famous 
for courage as she was for beauty by riding through the 
country at night warning the settlers on the " border,' 1 in 
the neighborhood of her home, of an impending Indian 
raid. 

This interesting pair was, of course, a welcome addi- 
tion to Richmond society and made " Grey Castle," as the 
Gamble House was called, a charming home. Their sons 
removed to Florida and founded a prominent family there, 
but their two daughters made brilliant matches in Rich- 
mond and continued to live at " Grey Castle." Elizabeth, 
after a long courtship, became the wife of the distinguished 
William Wirt, while Agnes made choice from her many 

* See illustration, page 143. 

5 For an account of Colonel Gamble and his family see Brown, 
The Cabells and Their Kin, p. 255 et seq. 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 15 



bt 



suitors of Judge William H. Cabell, of the Court of Ap- 
peals of Virginia and Governor of the State. As the roof- 
tree of these two distinguished couples " Grey Castle " 
naturally continued to be one of the notable* homes of 
Virginia. In the course of time the Wirts moved away, 
and Judge and Mrs. Cabell became sole master and mis- 
tress of the house and dispensers of its hospitality. Tom 
Moore was once entertained there, when Miss Maria Mayo, 
a famous beauty and belle and afterwards the wife of Gen- 
eral Winfield Scott, paid him the pretty compliment of 
singing to him and the assembled company, " Believe Me 
If All Those Endearing Young Charms.'*' 

After the time of the Cabells, " Grey Castle " had 
various owners. For some years the celebrated McGuire's 
School was taught there. It was afterward pulled down 
and a row of tenements was built upon its site. 

THE RUTHERFOORD HOUSE 

The first resident of Richmond to see that the future 
of the city lay to the westward was Mr. Thomas Ruther- 
foord, 6 a native of Scotland, who, over a hundred years ago, 
established his family in a handsome residence in the coun- 
try, but near enough to town for him to go to and from 
his business. This earliest of West End homes stood upon 
the northeast corner of the present Franklin and Adams 
Streets, but has given place to the row of modern houses 
that now occupies that site. In the words of one who re- 
members it, the Rutherfoord House was " a noble specimen 
of colonial architecture," one of the last of its kind. The 
roof was in keeping with the style built by the rich aristo- 
cratic class, lofty and peaked, and flanked* by tall chimney 
stacks which stood out in relief against the sky, towering 
above the loftiest trees. The body of the house was broad 
and ample, and afforded a typical example of simplicity 
and strength characteristic of the structures of the Colonial 
period. The grounds occupied an extensive area and were 

6 Rutherfoord family : The Richmond Standard, ii, Nos. 25-28. 



158 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

laid off into lawns, kitchen and flower gardens, orchard 
and vineyard. A massive brick wall enclosed many acres 
of what is now First Street, occupied by orchards of every 
variety of fruit known at that day. 

Mr. Rutherfoord married the lovely Sallie Winston, 
daughter of Mr. Geddes Winston. After his death and 
when his goodly band of sons and daughters had scattered 
into homes of their own, the Rutherfoord House changed 
hands several times, but from first to last the mansion, 
and those that lived in it, held a prominent place in the 
social life of Richmond. It was at one time the home of 
the Honorable John Y. Mason, Secretary of the Navy, At- 
torney General of the United States, and United States 
Minister to France. Colonel A. S. Buford was its last 
owner. 




BULLOCK HOUSE, RICHMOND 

THE BULLOCK HOUSE 



Upon the site now occupied by the Commonwealth 
Club once stood, in the midst of spacious grounds shaded 
by splendid old elms, a commodious brick mansion known 
as the Bullock House. It was begun by Mr. Peyton Drew 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 159 

and finished in 1814 by Mr. John Mutter — prominent 
citizens of Richmond, both of them — and in 1830 was sold 
to Mr. David Bullock, mayor of the city, who made his 
home in it for many years. Later it became the home of 
Mr. George Palmer. 

The Commonwealth Club was organized March 3, 1890, 
and practically succeeded the old Richmond Club, situated 
at Third and Franklin Streets, which was organized soon 
after the War between the States. The Commonwealth 
Club is one of the largest and most influential in the South. 

SWAN TAVERN 

Swan Tavern, at the northwest corner of Broad and 
Ninth, was long the favorite stopping place of prominent 
visitors to Richmond. It was built soon after the Revo- 
lution. Its most noted guest was Edgar Allan Poe, who 
boarded here during his last visit to Richmond. 




SUgjjj ggjg B s ^ 



tmm 




SWAN TAVERN, RICHMOND 

MANCHESTER 



THE GRAY AND CLOPTON HOUSES 
Manchester (now South Richmond), lying just across 
the river from Richmond, in the county of Chesterfield, 
had, under its Colonial name of Rocky Ridge, almost as 



160 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

early an origin as its larger neighbor. During the period 
when it was a flourishing tobacco market, a number of 
handsome homesteads, most of which have now disap- 
peared, were built there. Among those that remain are the 
Gray House, the floor of whose hall still bears the mark of 
the effort of the British soldiers to burn it ; and the Clopton 
House, built by Robert Graham, a Scotch merchant, who 




GRAY HOUSE, MANCHESTER, SOUTH RICHMOND 

was arrested and sent to the interior during the War of 
1812. This house was afterward the home of the dis- 
tinguished jurist John Bacon Clopton. 

BLACK HEATH 

Thirteen miles above Manchester, on the edge of the 
village of Midlothian, in Chesterfield County, once the 
centre of the famous coal-mining district, stands, in a state 
of rapid decay, Black Heath, for several generations the 
home of the Heth family. 7 



7 Heth family: The Critic (Richmond, Va.), Sept. 17, 1888. 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 161 

The most important of the Heths of Black Heath was 
Lieutenant General Henry Heth of the Confederate 
Army, or " Harry " Heth, as he was affectionately called. 
His soldierly instincts were inherited, for the brother of 
the first of his name at Black Heath was Colonel William 
Heth, of the Continental Line. 

The house, a large, rambling old mansion, part brick 
and part frame, was in its early days surrounded by all 
the appurtenances of a home of wealth and taste. There 
were a flower garden, oak grove, a great circular pigeon 




BLACK HEATH, CHESTERFIELD COUNTY 

house, a barn, stables, and other outbuildings; but many 
years ago coal pits were sunk practically all around the 
house, and tunnels, or drifts as they were called, run be- 
neath the grounds, and, it is said, beneath the house itself. 

Coal was mined at Midlothian as early as 1730 and 
for miles around may be seen the remains of the pits owned 
and operated by the Wooldridges, Clarkes, Cunliffes and 
other Chesterfield families. 

After the time of the Heths, Black Heath was occu- 
pied by Mr. Gilford, an Englishman, and later by the 
family of Colonel William B. Ball. 
11 



162 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

CHESTERFIELD COURT HOUSE 

Chesterfield Court House was built in 1749-50 and was 
ordered by the County Court to be a copy of the then 
Henrico Court House. In 1779 Hamilton, the British 
governor of Detroit, who had been captured by G. R. 
Clark, was confined here for a time. In 1781 the 
British forces under General Phillips burned the Court 
House, but its substantial walls remained intact, and when 




CHESTERFIELD COURT HOUSE 

the house was restored it must have been made like it was 
at first. Many celebrated trials have been held here. At 
the rear there is a wing (not shown in the picture) almost 
as large as the front part of the house. 

SALISBURY 

A few days after the election of Patrick Henry as 
governor of Virginia, in November, 1784, he left the capital 
in order to arrange his affairs in Henry County and re- 
moved his family to a farm called Salisbury, in Chesterfield 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 163 

County, near Richmond. The house chosen by the famous 
patriot as a residence during his term as governor was no 
palace or mansion, but a charmingly quaint, frame home- 
stead, with big, bright, airy rooms, only a story and a half 
high, which had been built some time during the eighteenth 
century by the Randolphs, as a hunting lodge. Governor 
Henry rented it from Thomas Mann Randolph. 

Salisbury is only fourteen miles from Richmond and 
but a little way from the village of Midlothian, but its situ- 




SALISBURY, CHESTERFIELD COUNTY 

ation seems lonely and remote by reason of the deep woods 
lying between. Cloistered among splendid old oaks, the 
house makes a pretty picture, with its dormer windows, 
Tts great chimneys and its square, white porches. 

In 1789, while Salisbury was the home of Henry, Mr. 
Randolph sold it to Doctor Philip Turpin, a native of 
Virginia, who was a graduate of medicine and surgery of 
the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. During the Revo- 
lution Dr. Turpin attempted to return home, but was taken 
prisoner and held by the British Government as surgeon 
on board ship until the close of the war. The cry of 



1G4 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

' Tory " was raised against him, but friends and officers 
in the British Navy bore witness that he was an unwilling 
prisoner, and, through the influence of Thomas Jefferson, 
an unconditional release of his property, which included 
Salisbury and had been placed under confiscation, was 
granted. At his death Doctor Turpin bequeathed Salis- 
bury to his daughter Caroline, the wife of Doctor Edward 
Johnson, who left it to her sons Edward and Philip Turpin 
Johnson. 

Edward Johnson was a gallant officer in the United 
States Army and a distinguished major-general in the 
Confederate Army. At the close of the War between the 
States he made Salisbury his home and died there, leaving 
no descendants. After the death of Philip Turpin Johnson 
the estate passed from this family. 




NORWOOD, POWHATAN COUNTY 

NORWOOD 

On James River, in Powhatan County, not far above 
the Chesterfield line, is Norwood, an old home long the 
property of the Harris family. It was sold by Mr. Baratier 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 1G5 

Harris to Mr. Beverley Randolph, formerly of Eastern 
View, Fauquier County, who owned it as early as 1835, 
and who added the wings. 

At the death of "Sir. Randolph, Norwood passed to his 
son Doctor Charles H. Randolph, who left it to Mrs. 
Nancy Randolph Kennon, and her husband Lieutenant 
William H. Kennon, U. S. N., for life, and at their death 
to their eldest son Charles Randolph Kennon, at whose 
death it passed to his brother William H. Kennon. 




BEAUMONT POWHATAN COUNTY 



BEAUMONT 

Higher up the river, in Powhatan County, is Beau- 
mont, formerly the beautiful home of Mr. William Walthall 
Michaux, father of Doctor Jacob Michaux, of Richmond. 8 
Though adjoining other large family estates which were 
inherited by Mr. Michaux, the house dates from before 
this time. It was the home of Mr. Edward Walthall, who, 
dying childless, left it to his relative and adopted son, 
William Walthall Michaux. 

The descendants of Abraham Michaux, one of the 

8 Michaux family: The Critic (Richmond, Va.), May 19, 1889. 



166 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Huguenots who settled at Manakin Town in 1700, gradu- 
ally acquired lands in this neighborhood until their holdings 
comprised many thousand acres. Though Beaumont has 
been sold, some of the ancestral lands are still owned by 
the Michaux family. 

Michaux's Ferry has long been a well-known crossing 
place on James River. 

PAXTON 

Dr. Ennion Williams Skelton, son of Josiah Skelton, 
came to Virginia about 1802 from New Jersey. He was 
a Master of Arts of Princeton and received a medical edu- 




>\. POWHATAN COUNTY 



cation at the Medical College of Pennsylvania. He 
settled at Genito, which was at that time a thriving village. 
Bateaux on the Appomattox were carried as far up as 
Genito Mill. This mill was owned by Dr. Skelton, who 
had an extensive practice. He married, in 1823, Catherine 
Waldron Gifford, of Newark, New Jersey, and lived in 
the village while his home Paxton was being built. Upon 
its completion, in 1824, Dr. Skelton's parents went there 
to live with him and, as will be seen further on, five 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 167 

generations of this family lived at Paxton between 1824 
and 1865. 

After the death of Dr. Skelton and his wife, the 
property was inherited by their son, Dr. John Gifford 
Skelton, who graduated in medicine at the University of 
Pennsylvania. He lived at Paxton, where he practised 
medicine until soon after the War between the States, 
when he moved to Richmond and was one of the most 
prominent physicians in that city. He married, as his first 
wife, in 1841, Charlotte Foushee Randolph, daughter of 
Peyton Randolph and his wife Maria Ward, and grand- 
daughter of Edmund Randolph, Secretary of State of the 
United States. The only child by this marriage was Maria 
Ward Skelton. His second wife was Marianne Meade, 
by whom he had ten children. Maria Ward Skelton 
married at Paxton, in 1864, John Langbourne Williams, 
of Richmond, and their oldest son, John Skelton Williams, 
was born there July 6, 1865, being the fifth generation 
of the family to live at Paxton. 

The place was celebrated for its hospitality. The 
location, being at the intersection of two public roads, made 
it a convenient stopping place for the soldiers during the 
war, and for the friends of the family at all times. 

POWHATAN COURT HOUSE AND TAVERN 

Powhatan Court House stands upon the site of an 
older building erected in 1777. Near it was fought, some 
time in the forties, the famous duel between Doctor Branch 
T. Archer and Doctor Otway Crump. Doctor Crump 
fell at the first fire. Doctor Archer removed to Texas, 
where he became prominent in the affairs of the then 
republic. 

At Powhatan Court House still stands, though now 
used for other purposes, one of the large old Court House 
Taverns, once so famous as gathering places, and for jovial 
hospitality. 



168 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

BELMEAD 

Belmead, also in Powhatan County, was built by 
Philip St. George Cocke (1808-1861), son of General 
John Hartwell Cocke (1780-1866), of Bremo, Fluvanna 
County. Philip St. George Cocke was a graduate of West 
Point and was a brigadier general in the Confederate 
Army. 

The great size and striking architecture of the Belmead 
house make it one of the most imposing mansions on James 
River. It is now the property of the Roman Catholic 
Church. 

TUCKAHOE 

On the north side of the river opposite Powhatan 
County is the County of Goochland, at the lower end of 
whicl/stands Tuckahoe, the oldest of the James River 
mansions west of Richmond. 

Tuckahoe was a frontier settlement established at a 
time when, on account of the Indian terror, the law re- 
quired for every five hundred acres, " One Christian man, 
perfect of limb, provided with a well-fixed musquett or 
fuzee, a good pistoll, sharp simeter and tomahawk," to live 
upon the land. The house stands upon the brow of a steep, 
wooded hill and is approached through an avenue of beau- 
tiful elms. To the left may still be seen the curious old 
" box-labyrinth," with its twisting and winding walks, and 
traces of the flower-garden, where rose-bushes, bridal- 
wreath, lilacs, sweet william, and other old-fashioned 
flowers flourished in prim beds and borders. 

The mansion, built in part of Colonial brick and in 
part of wood, is of unique design. There are two wings, 
each 25 feet deep and 40 feet long, connected by a hall 
24 feet wide and 40 feet long, with arched doorways open- 
ing at either end into the wings — giving the house the shape 
of the letter H. 

A visitor to Tuckahoe, writing in 1779, says, " it seems 
to be built solely for the purposes of hospitality," and that 
the family lived in one wing while the other is " reserved 
solely for visitors." The rooms and hall are panelled from 




TUCKAHOE, GOOCHLAND COUNTY 




BELMEAD, POWHATAN COUNTY 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 171 

floor to ceiling with black walnut. A fine stairway of the 
same wood, with hand-carved balustrade, adds to the beauty 
of the hall. This hall was furnished with four sofas, two 
on each side, " besides chairs," and served the double pur- 
pose of a " cool retreat " in summer and " an occasional 
ball-room." 

Upon several of the tiny panes of glass in the windows 
may be seen the names of some of the Randolphs and 
their friends, scratched with diamonds before the Revo- 
lution. 

Tuckahoe was built by Thomas Randolph ( 1689-1730) , 
of Turkey Island, who was a burgess for Henrico and 
commander-in-chief of Goochland at the time that county 
was formed. He married Judith Fleming and was the 
father of Judith Randolph, who married Reverend William 
Stith (1689-1755), president of William and Mary Col- 
lege and historian of Virginia, and of Mary Randolph, 
who became the wife of Reverend James Keith (and was 
the grandmother of Chief Justice Marshall). Thomas 
Randolph died in 1730, leaving Tuckahoe to his only son, 
William Randolph, who married Maria Judith, daughter 
of Honorable Mann Page I, of Rosewell. William 
Randolph was for several years, and at the time of his 
death, a burgess for Goochland. He died in 1745, pos- 
sessed of a large estate. He left £1200 sterling, a hand- 
some fortune in those days, to each of his two daughters. 
His will directed that a tutor should be employed to teach 
his only son, Thomas Mann Randolph, and also his daugh- 
ters. At the time of his death this only son was a child, and 
in response to a request in the will, Peter Jefferson ( whose 
wife was Jane, a daughter of Isham Randolph, of Dunge- 
ness, who was great-uncle to the said Thomas Mann) came 
to Tuckahoe, bringing with him his son Thomas, and took 
the estate and the family under his charge. It thus befell 
that Thomas Jefferson, when a lad, went to school with 
his cousins, the Randolph children, in the tiny school-house 
still to be seen in the yard at Tuckahoe. 

Thomas Mann Randolph, of Tuckahoe, was a member 
of the House of Burgesses, and, after the Revolution, of 



172 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

the Virginia Legislature. By his first marriage with Anne, 
daughter of Archibald Cary, of Ampthill, he was the 
father of (among several other children) Thomas Mann 
Randolph, of Edge Hill, Albemarle County, governor of 
Virginia, and by his second marriage, with Gabriella 
Harvie, of another Thomas Mann Randolph, who inherited 
Tuckahoe, but who sold it in 1830 to Edwin Wight, of 
Richmond. Mr. Wight sold it twenty years later to Joseph 
Allen, from whom it passed to Major Richard Allen and 




SCHOOL-HOUSE AT TCCKAHOK 
Where Thomas Jefferson wenl to schoo 



his wife, who was Miss Virginia Mitchell, a famous beauty 
and belle of Richmond. In 1898 the old place again 
changed hands, this time becoming once more the prop- 
erty of those of Randolph blood — the Coolidge family 
of * Boston, descendants of Governor Thomas Mann 
Randolph, who still own it. 

The social history of Tuckahoe has been brilliant. 
Colonel William Byrd in his Progress to the Mines de- 
scribes a visit there in 1732 and from that time on many 
distinguished men have been sheltered by this famous old 
roof-tree. The house was divided in opinion during the 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 173 

Revolution and both Washington and Cornwallis are said 
to have enjoyed its hospitality. 

Of course Tuckahoe has its ghosts. Creepy stories are 
told of the shade of a murdered pedler which haunts the 
southeast chamber and a distressed bride, with flowing 
locks and wringing hands, who paces the east walk. 

In a vault screened from view by grape arbors and 
shrubbery, about two hundred yards distant from the 
mansion, sleep the Randolphs of Tuckahoe. 

OAKLAND ' 

On June 26, 1731, about fifteen years after Governor 
Spotswood's trip of exploration to the Blue Ridge Moun- 
tains had caused the gradual movement of the settlements, 
from the head of tide-water on the James and other rivers 
towards the foot of the mountains, a Land Patent, cover- 
ing the site of Oakland, was issued in the name of 
George II, King of Great Britain, by Governor William 
Gooch, to " Bowler Cocke, Gentleman." This patent or 
grant was made in consideration of 12 pounds, for 2400 
acres of land on the south side of the James on Muddy 
Creek, formerly in Henrico County, at that date in 
Goochland County, and now in Cumberland County 
(Virginia Land Office, Land Patents, Vol. 14, p. 187). 

Bowler Cocke, to whom the grant was made, was the 
son of Richard Cocke, 3d, son of Richard, 2d, son of 
Richard 1st, who came to the Colony of Virginia prior to 
1632 (as his name appears in the list of Burgesses of the 
"Grand Assembly" for that year) , and settled at "Bremo," 
the original home of the Cocke family in Virginia, near 
James River, about twelve miles east of Richmond (Vir- 
ginia Magazine of History and Biography, III, 282). 
On the death of Bowler Cocke, 1st (1771), Oakland 
passed to his son, Bowler Cocke, 2d. On the latter's death 
( 1772) , it passed to his son, William Cocke. On William's 
death (1825), it passed to his son, Wm. Armistead Cocke, 

9 This account was written bv a member of the Cocke family. 



174 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

who was the great-great-grandson, through his mother, 
Jane Armistead, of Colonel William Byrd, 2d. And on 
the death of Wm. A. Cocke (1855 ) , who married Elizabeth 
Randolph Preston, of Lexington, Va., it passed to their 
four sons, William Fauntleroy, Thomas Lewis Preston, 
Edmund Randolph, and John Preston Cocke, all of whom 
were in the Confederate Army. Oakland is now owned 
by Edmund R. Cocke. 

Though Oakland has been owned by the Cocke family 
for more than 175 years, it seems that it was not occupied 
as a home until about 1788, when William Cocke moved 
there from Bremo. 

Oakland is about forty miles west of Richmond, and 
about six miles south of Cartersville. It is a typical old 
Virginia tobacco plantation, though it also produces wheat, 
corn and oats and an abundance of vegetables and fruit. 
Its greatest attraction is its large yard of about twelve 
acres, which, during the last century, contained some fifty- 
five or sixty gigantic oaks, white and red, chiefly the 
former, and a large number of other kinds of beautiful 
shade trees. The largest of these oaks are said to be some 
twenty feet in circumference, casting a shade at mid-day 
of over a hundred feet in diameter. It is not probable that 
such a collection of oaks can be found, within such a limited 
space, anywhere else in this country. The writer, who has 
visited many parks and other places noted for their fine 
forest growth, has never seen such a collection of large 
trees except on the Pacific Coast. 

The following incident, related by a Virginia authoress, 
which occurred shortly after the Civil War, illustrates very 
fully the surpassing grandeur of these trees : 

Oakland was not by any means among the handsomest of the 
old Virginia houses, but in one respect it surpassed them all. I 
remember on one occasion driving back to the home from service 
at the country church with Bishop Whittle, when a member of the 
family said to him, " Bishop, this is not your first visit to Oakland ; 
you were here, sir, 20 years ago, when you were just Mr. Whittle." 
It was evident that the Bishop did not recall the visit, and the 







OAKLAND, CUMBKRLAM) COUNTY 




OAKLAND, SHOWING THE GROVE 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 177 

conversation was deftly changed to save embarrassment. But 
when the open carriage swept around the edge of the woods, and 
brought the 12-acre lawn to view, with its 80 or more trees, 50 of 
them primeval oaks, measuring several feet in diameter, and 
spreading out into vast sanctuaries of shade, the Bishop stood up 
in the carriage and took off his hat. " You are mistaken, Captain 
Cocke," he said ; " I might have been graceless enough to forget 
the kindest host, but not these monarchs. I have never seen 
Oakland before." 10 

An interesting description of the " old days " at Oak- 
land is given by Mrs. Allan in her Life of Mrs. M. J. 
Preston; and of " War Times " by Mr. E. A. Moore, in 
The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson. 

While Oakland was visited by many persons of note 
during the last century, it was especially honored by a 
visit from General R. E. Lee, just after the close of the 
Civil War. At the invitation of Mrs. Elizabeth R. Cocke, 
the mistress of Oakland from 1835 to 1889, General Lee 
came to Oakland in June, 1865. He was accompanied by 
Mrs. Lee, Miss Agnes, Miss Mildred and General Custis 
Lee. General Lee and the ladies came by the " packet 
boat " on the old James River and Kanawha Canal, and as 
the berths were very close and uncomfortable, the General 
preferred sleeping on the open deck of the boat with his 
cloak wrapped around him. This is probably the last 
occasion on which he ever bivouacked. 

After a week spent here (Oakland), General Lee removed with 
his family to " Derwent " (the home of T. L. P. Cocke, adjoining 
Oakland). There he spent several months of quiet rest, only 
interrupted by the calls of those who came in all honesty and 
sincerity to pay their respects to him. Old soldiers, citizens, men 
and women, all came without parade or ceremony. 11 

In August, 1865, while at Derwent, General Lee was 
visited by Judge John W. Brockenbrough, Rector of 
the Board of Trustees of Washington College, Lexington, 

10 Life of Mrs. M. J. Preston, by Mrs. Elizabeth P. Allan, 
p. 102. 

11 Be collect ions and Letters of General Robert E. Lee, by Cap- 
tain Robert E. Lee, pp. 171-172. 

12 



178 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Va., who offered him the Presidency of that College. 
After several weeks of deliberation, General Lee accepted 
that position, and in September removed with his family 
to Lexington. 

Oakland, unlike most old Virginia homes, was not 
overrun by the Federal troops during the Civil War; 
its inaccessibility alone saved it. But in August, 1900, a 
mouse and a match caused a greater loss than the Federals 
would probably have inflicted, by destroying the delightful 
home represented in the accompanying picture, and by 
damaging the large oaks which flanked it both east and 
west. Mrs. Elizabeth P. Allen, after alluding to the 
great loss of such a home and its contents, some of which 
possessed an incalculable sentimental value, adds, " Surely 
there must be a spiritual immortality for such a home." 




SABOT HILL, GOOCHLAND COUNTY 

SABOT HILL AND DOVER 

A short distance above Bendover, in the same county, 
Goochland, and also overlooking the James, are two beau- 
tiful houses, which on account of the intermarriages of the 
families of their builders are closelv associated — Sabot 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 181 

Hill, the old homestead of the Seddons, and Dover, of 
the Morsons. 

Sabot Hill was built in 1855 by James Alexander Sed- 
don, afterward Secretary of War of the Confederate Gov- 
ernment. It is now the property of Mr. W. E. Harris. 

Dover was built by Mr. Arthur Morson and is one of 
the fairest of old Virginia's fair mansions. Its long pil- 
lared portico is an especially striking feature. It, too, has 
changed hands, but its present owner, Mr. C. Boice, has 
beautifully restored it. 




HOWARDS NECK. GOOCHLAND COUNTY 

HOWARD'S NECK 

The dwelling here was built by Edward Cunningham 
in 1825, whose son, Dr. Francis Cunningham, was a 
prominent physician in Richmond many years ago. The 
property was purchased from the Cunninghams, in 1842, 
by John B. Hobson, who married Martha Bland Selden, 
of Westover. Now owned by Mr. Saunders Hobson. 

ROCK CASTLE 

Rock Castle, in Goochland County, for the past half 
century the hospitable home of Mr. John Coles Ruther- 



182 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

foord and his family, takes its name from the high rocky 
bluff overlooking James River, upon which the house is 
perched. The simple cottage with vine-covered porch and 
sloping dormer roof bears little likeness to a castle, but it 
is well worthy of consideration, for it has its place in the 
social history of Virginia and has suffered from two wars. 
It is one of the oldest homesteads in this section. The 
plantation was seated nearly two hundred years ago by 
Mr. Tarleton Fleming (according to tradition, a descend- 
ant of the Earl of Wigton, in Scotland), whose wife was 
Mary Randolph, of Tuckahoe. Colonel William Byrd in 
his Progress to the Mines (1732) mentions a visit to 
Tuckahoe, where he met Mrs. Fleming, " on her way to 
join her husband at Rock Castle, thirty miles farther up 
the river in a part of the country little settled, and but 
latelv redeemed from the wilderness." 




ROCK CASTLE, GOOCHLAND COUNTY 

Upon the death of Tarleton Fleming, Rock Castle 
passed to his son, Thomas Mann Fleming. Upon his 
death it was bought by Colonel David Bullock, a promi- 
nent lawyer, of Richmond, who kept open house, and lib- 
erally dispensed old-fashioned Southern hospitality there, 
for years. Some time after the death of Colonel Bullock, 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 183 

Governor John Rutherfoord bought the estate as a sum- 
mer home, and it finally became the residence of his son, 
"Sir. John Coles Rutherfoord, of Richmond, who modern- 
ized the front of the house. However, the quaint archi- 
tectural features of the Colonial period may still be seen 
at the rear. 

During the Revolution, Rock Castle was visited by a 
raiding party under General Tarleton, who angrily cut 
down and bore away the coat-of-arms of Tarleton quar- 
tered with Fleming from the wall of the panelled parlor. 

Years later, during the raid around Richmond, a party 
of Sheridan's soldiers sacked the house and were only 
prevented from firing it by the entreaties of the faithful 
colored servants. 

Rock Castle is now the property of the distinguished 
surgeon, Dr. Geo. Ben Johnston, whose wife is a daughter 
of John Coles Rutherfoord. 




ROLLING HALL, GOOCHLAND COUNTY 



the early eighteenth century the Boilings of 



BOLLING HALL 

From 
Cobbs, in Chesterfield County, owned much land 
Goochland, and various members of the family made their 
homes in that county at times. But the first to abandon 
the original homestead and settle permanently in Gooch- 



184 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

land was Colonel William Boiling, of " Boiling Hall," a 
militia officer in the War of 1812, and a man of prominence 
in his community. He was a philanthropist as well as a 
soldier, and after removing to Boiling Hall established at 
his old home, Cobbs, the first institution for the education 
of deaf mutes in America. 

Upon the walls of Boiling Hall long hung one of the 
most complete collections of family portraits in the State 
of Virginia. In it was represented every generation of 
Boilings from Robert, the emigrant, down. It is now the 
property of Mr. Richard Boiling, of Richmond, who has 
loaned it to the Virginia Historical Society. 




"UNCLE" ASA AND "AUNT" JINSEY AT BULLING ISLAND 

This old couple lived to be more than 100 years old. 

BOLLING ISLAND 

Colonel William Boiling left the valuable plantation 
Boiling Island to his son Thomas, who built the homestead. 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 185 

Later the estate was purchased by Mr. A. Y. Stokes, of 
Richmond, and is still the property of his descendants. 




BOLLING ISLAND, GOOCHLAND COUNTY 




UNION HILL, CUMBERLAND COUNTY 

UNION HILL 



Union Hill, in Cumberland County, was the home of 
John Cary Page (1789-1853 ) . One of Mr. Page's daugh- 



186 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

ters, Harriet Randolph, married, in 1857, Coupland 
Randolph, of Maryland, and they removed to New Hamp- 
shire ahont 1865. 

CLIFTON 
The Clifton estate in Cumberland County seems to 
have been settled by Carter Henry Harrison, of " Berke- 
ley " — a brother of Benjamin Harrison, the signer of the 
Declaration. The master of Clifton married Susannah, 




CLIFTON, CUMBERLAND COUNTY 

daughter of Colonel Isham Randolph, of " Dnngeness." 
After his death the homestead passed to his son Randolph 
Harrison, who married his first cousin, Mary, daughter of 
Thomas Isham Randolph, of " Dnngeness." 

Randolph and Mary Harrison, of " Clifton," had 
fourteen children, and their descendants, now widely scat- 
tered, form an influential social connection. 

BELLMONT 

Tradition says that quaint Bellmont, in Buckingham 
County, was the first frame dwelling in that section of the 
country — the pioneer settlers there having, hitherto con- 
tented themselves with log-houses. Its dormer windows, 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 187 

little square porch and big chimneys are indications of its 
age. Ancient trees form an arch high above the house 
which looks sedately forth from a yard filled with old- 
fashioned shrubs and flowers. 

Bellmont was built by Colonel Archibald Cary for his 
sister, Judith, who married Colonel David Bell, a native 
of Scotland and a member of the House of Burgesses for 




BELLMONT, BUCKINGHAM COUNTY 

Buckingham County. It was inherited by Colonel and 
Mrs. Bell's daughter, Mrs. Harrison, who left it to her 
daughter, Mrs. Ligon. The Ligons sold it to Mr. I. C. 
Gannawav. 

THE BREMOS 

Near each other in Fluvanna County are the three 
homesteads and estates known as Bremo, Lower Bremo, 
and Bremo Recess. 

General John Hartwell Cocke (1780-1866), of Surry 
County, a gentleman of prominence and fortune, removed, 



li 



VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 



about 1803, to Fluvanna County, where he owned large 
tracts of land. He built Bremo Recess, and lived in it 
while he was erecting the handsome mansion which he 
named Bremo, in honor of Bremo in Henrico County, 
which was the home of the Cocke family at a very early 
date. Bremo House, with its great stone barns and other 
outbuildings, is one of the notable places on James River. 
General Cocke was devoted to the cause of temperance 
and as a temperance memorial he had placed on the bank 




BARN AT BREMO 

of the James River and Kanawha Canal, at Bremo, a huge 
iron vase, pitcher-shaped, which was constantly filled to 
overflowing with water introduced by pipes from a spring. 
This unique fountain was long a famous sight to travellers 
up and down the canal. 

After the death of General John H. Cocke the prop- 
erty was inherited by his son, Dr. Cary C. Cocke, and 
at his death it passed to his two daughters, Misses Mary 
and Delia, who are the present owners. 

Dower Bremo was built in 1843 and belonged to Dr. 




BREMO, FLUVANNA COUNTY (FRONT) 




BREMO (REAR) 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 191 

Cary C. Cocke until 18o.5, when he and his father. General 
Cocke, exchanged homes. It is now the property of Mrs. 
\V. R. C. Cocke. 




LOWER BREMO, FLUVANNA COUNTY 

OLD " MARSHALL " PACKET BOAT 

The old Marshall was the last packet boat used on 
the James River and Kanawha Canal and the one on which 
the body of Stonewall Jackson was carried from Rich- 
mond to Lexington. Dr. George W. Bagby in his writ- 
ings has an interesting chapter on Canal Reminiscences, 
and the following account is condensed therefrom: 

' Those were the ' good old days ' of bateaux, — 
picturesque craft that charmed my young eyes more than 
all the gondolas of Venice would do now. If ever man 
gloried in his calling, the negro bateaux-man was that 
man. His was a hardy calling, demanding skill, courage 
and strength in a high degree. I can see him now striding 
the plank that ran along the gunwale to afford him a 
footing, his long iron-shod pole trailing in the water be- 
hind him. Now he turns, and after one or two ineffectual 
efforts to get his pole fixed in the rocky bottom of the 



192 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

river, secures his purchase, adjusts the upper part of the 
pole to the pad on his shoulder, bends to his task, and the 
long, but not ungraceful bark mounts the rapids like a 
sea-bird breasting the storm. His companion on the other 
side plies his pole with equal ardor, and between the two 
the boat bravely surmounts every obstacle, be it rocks, 
rapids, quicksands, hammocks, what not. A third negro 
at the stern held the mighty oar that served as a rudder. 
A stalwart, jolly, courageous set they were, plying the 
pole all day, hauling it to shore at night under the friendly 
shade of a mighty sycamore, to rest, to eat, to play the 
banjo, and to snatch a few hours of profound, blissful 
sleep. 

" The packet-landing at the foot of Eighth Street 
presented a scene of great activity. Passengers on foot 
and in vehicles continued to arrive up to the moment of 
starting. I took a peep at the cabin, wondering much 
how all the passengers were to be accommodated for the 
night. At last we were off, slowly pushed along under the 
bridge on Seventh Street; then the horses were hitched; 
then slowly along till we passed the crowd of boats near 
the city, until at length, with a lively jerk as the horses 
fell into a trot, away we went, the cut-water throwing up 
the spray as we rounded the Penitentiary hill, and the pas- 
sengers lingering on deck to get a last look at the fair city 
of Richmond, lighted by the pale rays of the setting sun. 

" As the shadows deepened, everybody went below. 
There was alwaj r s a crowd in those days, but it was a 
crowd, for the most part, of our best people, and no one 
minded it. 

" Supper over, the men went on deck to smoke, while 
the laches busied themselves with draughts or backgam- 
mon, with conversation or with books. But not for long. 
The curtains which separated the female from the male 
department were soon drawn, in order that the steward 
and his aids might make ready the berths. These were 
three deep, ' lower,' ' middle,' and ' upper; ' and great was 
the desire on the part of the men not to be consigned to 
the ' upper.' 

" The ceremony of ablution was per formed in a prim- 




WIND-POWER GRIST MILL IN MATHEWS COUNTY 




THE OLD "MARSHALL." THE LAST PACKET BOAT BUN ON JAMES RIVER AND KANAWHA CANAL 
13 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 195 

itive fashion. There were the tin basins, the big tin dipper 
with the long wooden handle. I feel it vibrating in the 
water now, and the water a little ninddy generally; and 
there were the towels, a big one on a roller, and the little 
ones in a pile, and all of them wet. 

" Of all the locks from Lynchburg down, the Three- 
Mile Locks pleased me most. It is a pretty place, as 
every one will own on seeing it. It was so clean and green, 
and white and thrifty-looking. To me it was simply 
beautiful. I wanted to live there; I ought to have lived 
there. I was built for a lock-keeper — have that exact 
moral and mental shape. Ah! to own your own negro, 
who would do all the drudgery of opening the gates. 
Occasionally you would go through the form of putting 
your shoulder to the huge wooden levers, if that is what 
they call them, by which the gates are opened; to own 
your own negro and live and die calmly at a lock ! What 
more could the soul ask? " 




POINT-OF-FORK, FLUVANNA COUNTY 



POINT-OF-FORK 

Point-of-Fork, in Fluvanna County, was for years the 
home of the Gaits. William Gait, first of this family in 



196 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Virginia, was born in 1755, in the parish of Dundonald, 
Ayrshire, Scotland, and emigrated to Virginia in early 
youth and later became associated in business with his 
nephew, John Allan (Edgar Allan Poe's foster-father). 
He died in Richmond in 1823. His nephew, James Gait, 
of Point-of-Fork, a native of Irvine, Scotland, died 
April 26, 1826, in his seventy-second year. 

During the Revolution there was a State arsenal and 
armory near Point-of-Fork. 

In latter years it has been owned by General Lindsay 
Walker, Mrs. Hartwell Cabell, who was a daughter of 
General T. M. Logan, and now by Mr. James Alston 
Cabell. 




CUMBERLAND COURT HOUSE 

CUMBERLAND TAVERN 

The county seat of Cumberland still possesses one of 
the large old taverns, formerly called the Effingham 
Tavern, so full of suggestions of bygone days. John 
Randolph, of Roanoke, was often a guest at this tavern 
and made political speeches in the Court House. 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 197 




A.MPTHILL, CUMBERLAND COUNTY 

AMPTHILL 

Ampthill, in Cumberland County, is said to have been 
built by Randolph Harrison, who married, in 1790, Mary 
Randolph of Dungeness. Their daughter Mary Randolph 
Harrison married, in 1827, William Byrd Harrison, of 



198 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Upper Brandon, and was the mother of Colonel Randolph 
Harrison, a gallant soldier of the Confederate Army, who 
inherited Ampthill and long made it his home. 

LIBERTY HAUL 

When, in 1724, Doctor William Cabell, of Union Hill, 
came from Wiltshire, England, and settled in what is now 
Nelson County, Virginia, his first home was a house which 
stood on the site now occupied by Liberty Hall. He after- 
ward built nearer the river, where the family graveyard, 




LIBERTY HALL, NELSON" COUNTY 



shaded by a lofty elm, said to have been planted at the 
head of his grave, may still be seen. 

Liberty Hall was the inheritance of Doctor Cabell's 
youngest son, Nicholas (1750-1803), passing from him to 
his youngest living son, Nicholas Cabell, Jr. (1780-1809), 
thence descending to his son Nathaniel Francis Cabell 
1807-1891 ) . The last mentioned Mr. Cabell at the time of 
his first marriage, about 1837, with Anne Blaws (1811- 
1862), daughter of General John Hartwell Cocke, of 
Bremo, moved the house to the site of the earliest home of 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 199 

his great-grandfather. About 1843 a wing was added to the 
house. Liberty Hall is still owned by Mr. Nathaniel 
Francis Cabell's children. 

The dwelling was built by slaves from timber cut from 
the plantation and the wrought nails used in its con- 
struction were made on the place. 

UNION HILL 

In the County of Nelson may be found a number of 
estates and dwellings which formerly were, and some of 
which still are, the homes of the connection aptly styled by 




UNION HILL, NELSON COUNTY 

one of the most distinguished among its members " the 
Cabells and their kin." From this group of homes have 
come representatives who have made their family known 
in almost every walk of life throughout the country. 

Part of the Union Hill estate was granted in 1738 to 
Doctor William Cabell (1699-1 774), 12 the first of the 
name in Virginia, who in 1763 deeded it to his son, William 

12 For a full genealogy of the Cabells see Brown's The Cabells 
and Their Kin. Houghton, Mifflin Company. 



200 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

(1730-1798), who made large additions to its acreage. 
The tract when completed extended for about ten miles 
along James River, and contained at least 25,000 acres of 
land. The building of the homestead began about 1775, 
and as the Revolution soon cut off supplies from England, 
the work had to be done almost entirely from materials 
to be had on the place. The wood was cut and bricks and 
nails made on the plantation. Save that the shingled roof 
has been replaced by tin, and repairs made, the house is 
about as Colonel Cabell left it. It is 60 feet wide by 40 
feet deep and has two stories, a basement and an attic, 
witli wainscoted rooms and halls and ample cellars. Around 
it stood all the numerous outbuildings necessary to a great 
plantation. 

Colonel William Cabell, the builder of Union Hill, 
was one of the most eminent Virginians of his day. He 
was for many years a member of the House of Burgesses, 
was colonel of the Amherst militia and was a member of 
the Conventions and the Committee of Safety and a leader 
in the Revolutionary movement. Only a detailed study of 
his life as given by Doctor Alexander Brown can give an 
adequate idea of his services to the State. Colonel Cabell 
married Margaret, daughter of Colonel Samuel Jordan, 
of Buckingham County, who after her husband's death, on 
March 23, 1798, continued to occupy Union Hill with her 
son-in-law, William H. Cabell, afterward governor of 
Virginia. 

Governor Cabell left Union Hill in 1801 and Colonel 
William Cabell, Jr., whose home at that time was Colleton, 
went to Union Hill and lived there until his death, in 1822, 
when he was succeeded by his son Mayo Cabell. Mr. Mayo 
Cabell married first Mary, daughter of Judge William 
Daniel, and secondly Caroline, daughter of Christopher 
Anthony, who surviving him at his death, in 1869, con- 
tinued to live there. 

In 1873 Union Hill was bought by Alexander Brown, 
the distinguished Virginia historian, who was twice mar- 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 201 

ried, both times to a Miss Cabell. The estate is now owned 
by Miss Lucy G. Cabell, who is the sister-in-law of 
Alexander Brown. 

EDGEWOOD, NELSON COUNTY 

Edgewood's special claim to distinction is as the home 
of Honorable Joseph Carrington Cabell (1778-1856), a 
leading member of the Virginia Legislature and a gentle- 
man of rare talent and culture. It was chiefly through his 
sympathy and aid that Thomas Jefferson's plans for the 




KDGKWOOI), NELSON COUNTY 



University of Virginia were carried out. Mr. Cabell suc- 
ceeded Jefferson as Rector of the University and held that 
office until his death, in 1856. 

Edgewood, as may be seen from the picture, was one of 
the houses that grew with the needs of its occupants, thereby 
gaining that delightful rambling effect characteristic 
of so many old Virginia homesteads. The central building 
is about a century old. It stands upon what was originally 
a town lot in Warminster, which during Colonial days and 
for fifty years afterward was a village of a few hundred 



202 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

inhabitants and a shipping point for tobacco by bateaux 
down the James. The old house was built by Mr. Robert 
Rives, of Oak Ridge, Nelson County, who was then a 
merchant at Warminster, and was sold by him to Mr. 
Cabell. Mr. Cabell added the wings and kitchen and en- 
larged the central building at the rear. 

Mr. Cabell married Miss Mary Carter of Lancaster 
County, and in the Edge wood yard stands a cottage where 
once lived the Honorable St. George Tucker, and his 
second wife, who was Mrs. George Carter, the mother of 
Mrs. Cabell. The mortal remains of all the above named 
lie in the graveyard to the rear of the house. After her 
husband's death Mrs. Joseph C. Cabell continued to make 
Edgewood her home until her death, in 1862. It was 
bought from Mr. Cabell's residuary legatee by Mr. Philip 
B. Cabell, whose widow now owns it. 

Edgewood boasts of a well-authenticated ghost, for, 
though there seem to be few who have actually seen the 
gentle visitor from " beyond the veil," many there are who 
bear testimony of the light touch upon the shoulder of 
" Cousin Polly," as Mrs. Joseph C. Cabell was universally 
called in the connection. This lady was heiress of a goodly 
portion of the " King Carter " property, in Lancaster 
County, and left a large estate. Having no faith in 
lawyers, and determined that they should have nothing to 
do with her property, she wrote, with her own hand, one of 
the largest and most remarkable wills on record. In spite 
of her pains it is said that the lawyers got three-fourths of 
her fortune, which perhaps accounts for her uneasy rest. 

SOLDIER'S JOY 

Soldier's Joy, another delightfully rambling old home- 
stead, was built in 1785 by Colonel Samuel Jordan Cabell, 
a gallant officer in the Revolutionary War and an original 
member of the Virginia Society of the Cincinnati. Im- 
mediately after his marriage to Sally Syme, of Hanover, 
in 1781, Colonel and Mrs. Cabell lived with his parents at 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 203 

Union Hill. From 1795 to 1803 Colonel Cabell repre- 
sented his district in Congress. 

An interesting item in the diary of Colonel William 
Cabell of Union Hill is this entry under date of May 1, 
1791 : " My son Sam sent ns some ice from his ice-house of 
which 1 had a Rowl of Punch. The first ice-punch I ever 
drank." 




-IB" nch 



.' 




SOLDIER'S JOY, NET.SON COUNTY 

Soldier's Joy is now the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles 
T. Palmer. Mrs. Palmer was Miss Alice Winston Cabell, 
a daughter of Doctor Clifford Cabell. 

OTTER RURN 

This dwelling, built in the early part of the nineteenth 
century, situated about two and one-half miles north of 
Redford City (formerly Liberty), in the County of Red- 
ford, was the home of the late Renj. A. Donald, who was 
for many years presiding justice of the old county court 
of that county. He married Sally Camm, of Amherst 
Comity, and at her death she devised Otter Rurn to 
her sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Patteson, of Ruckingham, the 
widow of Dr. David Patteson. It has now passed out of the 
family, but is well kept up. 



204 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Before the War between the States Otter Burn 
was one of the noted Virginia homes. It is not many 
miles from the Bine Ridge Mountains, with the famous 
Peaks of Otter in full view. The dwelling, which is 
situated about a mile from the public road, is an old styled 
four-gabled house built of brick, with broad porches run- 
ning the entire length at the front and more than half way 
at the back, supported by double columns extending up 
to the eaves. This construction gives a most imposing 
effect. All of the rooms have large French windows open- 
ing out on the porches. The driveway in the front yard is 




OTTER BURN, PATTESON, BEDFORD COUNTY 

around a circle which brings the visitor up to the circular 
stone steps at the front porch. The front yard is covered 
with a great variety of trees and evergreens, and is sur- 
rounded by hedges of althea, boxwood and lilac. Adjoin- 
ing the front yard is a beautiful old-fashioned flower 
garden, artistically divided into sections by boxwood 
hedges, where one could find growing in the utmost luxuri- 
ance roses, flowers and evergreens. 

The old place still retains its homelike appearance of 
restf ulness far from the interminable jangle of bells and 
the roar of modern town life. 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 205 

OAK RIDGE 

Robert Rives, 1 :: a native of Sussex County, Virginia, 
became a leading and wealthy merchant, and married, 
in 1790, Margaret, daughter of Colonel William Cabell, 
of Union Hill. From 1791 to 1808 Mr. and Mrs. Rives 
lived at Edgewood. In 1708 Mrs. Rives inherited from 
her father part of the Oak Ridge plantation, Mr. Rives 
later purchasing the remainder from the other heirs, 
and in 1801-1802 built the mansion, which he occupied 




OAK RIDGE. NELSON COUNTY 



until his death, in 1845. He left a large estate, including 
much land in Albemarle, and from ten to fifteen thousand 
acres in Nelson County. After Mr. Rives' death Oak 
Ridge was the home of his daughter Margaret Jordon 
Rives, who died unmarried in 1862. One of his sons was 
the distinguished statesman, William Cabel Rives, of Castle 
Hill, Albemarle County. 

Oak Ridge is now the property of Mr. Thomas F. 
Ryan, the well-known financier, and is, with its beautiful 
mansion, a splendid estate. One of the greatest attractions 



Rives family: Brown, The Cabells and Their Kin. 



206 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

of the house is the large collection of life-sized portraits of 
Englishmen associated with the settlement of Virginia, 
copied for Mr. Ryan and exhibited by him in the History 
Building at the Jamestown Exposition. 

MASSIE HOMES IN NELSON COUNTY 
LEVEL GREEN AND PHARSALIA 

In Nelson County, in the neighborhood of Massie's 
Mills, there remained, until several years ago, three old 
mansions of the Massies: " Level Green," " Blue Rock " 
and " Pharsalia." " Level Green " has passed out of the 
possession of the family. " Blue Rock " was burned to 
the ground about ten years ago, and " Pharsalia," though 
having passed out of the family, is the only one which 
retains anything of its former beauty. 

Major Thomas Massie, the founder of the Massie 
family in Nelson County, was born in New Kent 
County, August 22, 1747; was educated at William and 
Mary College ; a captain in Revolutionary service and was 
promoted Major in the Northern campaigns, 1776-1779, 
generally on detached or particular service. At the Battle 
of Monmouth he delivered Washington's order of attack 
to General Charles Lee. He was Major, and for a time 
acting Colonel, of the 2d Virginia Regiment, 1778-1779; 
aide-de-camp to General Nelson, winter of 1790-1791 to 
the fall of Yorktown; after the war he received 5333V3 
acres of land in the States of Ohio and Kentucky for his 
services as Major, etc. ; and was a member of the Society of 
the Cincinnati. He moved from St. Peter's Parish, New 
Kent County, about 1780, to Frederick County, and thence 
to old Amherst, to property which is in the present County 
of Nelson, of which county he was one of the first Magis- 
trates from 1808. He married, about 1780, Sarah Cocke. 
He died at " Level Green," his seat in Nelson County, 
February 2, 1834. His father, William Massie, who 
married Martha Macon, who afterwards married Colonel 
Theodorick Bland, was a son of Captain Thomas Massie, 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 207 

of St. Peter's Parish, New Kent County, who died about 
1740. The Massies came from Cheshire, England. 

Sarah Cocke (wife of Major Thomas Massie) was 
born at " Turkey Island," March 8, 1700, and died at 
"Level Green," April 20, 1838. 

While seeking a home Major Massie visited the wild 
and beautiful upper valley of the Tye River, in that time 
in Amherst County and then almost uninhabited. Much 
taken with the magnificent scenery, the richness of the 




PHARSALIA 

rough land and its accessibility to the markets — being only 
twenty miles from the James (then considered a short 
distance) — he bought from John Rose, the original 
patentee, 3111 acres on the upper Tye River. 

This gently rolling plateau, between 900 and 1000 
feet above the sea and lying at the foot of the " Priest " 
Mountain, was selected by Major Massie as the site of his 
new home. 

The first small house was completed in 1798, the larger 
one begun in 1799 and finished about 1803. They both 



208 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

face the east and overlook the little valleys of Castle Creek 
and Rocky Run, and, behind, the big " Priest " towers up 
4084 feet above the sea. 

The plan of the second and larger house is simple. 
The first floor was one long line, only broken by a porch 
covered with a large climbing rose and honeysuckle, and 
contained four rooms and a quaint square panelled hall. 
From the back of this hall a long passage extended to 
another large room, built originally for a dining-room. 
The floors in the house were of hardwood and the wooden 
mantels very quaint and high, those in the upper rooms 
almost reaching the ceiling. In the back yard were the 
kitchen and smoke-house. Until the place was sold the 
front door bore a large brass knocker in the form of an 
eagle with " T. M." on its breast. Back of the house was 
the orchard and garden and near them the old family 
graveyard, in which lie buried Major Massie, his wife and 
many of his descendants. 

" Pharsalia," the residence of Hon. William Massie, 
the third and youngest son of Major Massie, is about two 
miles from " Level Green " and is situated on a spur of 
the " Priest " about 1000 feet above the sea. It commands 
a wide and extensive view of hills and mountains, those of 
Buckingham and Campbell melting into the horizon. 

" Pharsalia " was planned by and built under the 
direction of Major Massie. It was commenced early in 
1813 and completed in the autumn of 1814, just before the 
first marriage of Hon. William Massie. 

The house has a long front, only relieved by the high 
pillared portico, with flagged floor. Mounting the broad 
stone steps and crossing the porch one enters the large 
hall. On the right is the parlor and joining it by two 
small entries (one each side the chimney) a guest chamber. 
On the left of the hall is the large dining-room and beyond 
it another guest chamber similar to the one on the right. 
Just back of the dining-room is a large pantry and from 
its porch a flagged walk leads to a big brick kitchen. 
Back of the front hall is another containing the stairway. 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 209 

Every room on the ground floor has its own private 
outdoor entrance, a fashion necessary in those days of 
many servants and slaves. Over the whole of the front 
runs a long garret. The rear portion is, however, built 
higher, and contains three medium-sized bedrooms. 

Mr. Massie was an exceedingly progressive and ener- 
getic man. He brought water to the yard by underground 
pipes from a spring higher in the mountain, and a constant 
flow of pure cold water gushes from a hydrant near the 
kitchen. 

Mr. Massie was married four times : first, to Miss Sally 
Steptoe, of Bedford County; second, to Miss Wyatt, of 
Lynchburg; third, to Miss Clark, of Campbell County, 
and fourth, to Miss Maria C. Effinger, of Harrisonburg, 
Virginia. He died at " Pharsalia " and is buried at " Level 
Green." 

Though in the mountains and out of the general track, 
it suffered greatly from raids during the War between the 
States. Fire was put under " Pharsalia " house in three 
places, but the cook discovered and extinguished the flames. 

Fortunately most of the silver was buried. Much of it 
remained so long buried that the exact spots were for- 
gotten, and some of it was not unearthed until several 
years after the war. 14 

IONIA 

Ionia, the home of Major James Watson, in the fertile 
and beautiful " Greenspring neighborhood," in Louisa 
County, was built about the year 1770. The Virginia 
author, Doctor George W. Bagby, while a guest at Hawk- 
wood, the Morris home a few miles away, visited Ionia with 
his hostess (Mrs. R. O. Morris, Major Watson's grand- 
daughter) , leaving for future generations a charming pen- 
picture of this old homestead. 

Says Doctor Bagby, " At Mrs. Morris's suggestion we 
made a hurried visit to Ionia, a gem, the cunningest old 

14 Massie family: William and Mary Quarterly Magazine, vol. 
xiii, pp. 196-203 ; also vol. xv, pp. 125-129. 
14 



210 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

country-house a heart could wish. Hidden away in a deep 
yard, rilled with ancient trees, a story and a half high, it is 
a nest in which I could be very happy. Inside are corner 
cupboards and other quaint furniture, including a rare 
old claw-footed mahogany table and the two oldest mirrors 
in Virginia. At Ionia Mrs. Morris knew the roses and 
gladness of life. No wonder she exclaimed as we drove off : 




IONIA, LOUISA COUNTY 

' I would not exchange it for a palace.' Nor would I, for 
nowhere in all Virginia have I found so quaint and dear a 
house." 

In 1845 Doctor George Watson, a distinguished phy- 
sician of Richmond, inherited Ionia. He long made it his 
summer home, and at his death bequeathed it to his daugh- 
ter, Mrs. Robert S. Archer, also of Richmond, who still 
owns it. 

BRACKETT'S 

Not far from Ionia is Brackett's, whose name came 
from an early owner of the land who, having built a small 
house there, sold his holdings to Major James Watson, of 
Ionia. Major Watson gave Brackett's to his son, Major 
David Watson, about 1800. The latter greatly enlarged 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 211 

and improved the house, for years making his home there. 
David Watson was a person of note: a man of letters 
and very public spirited. He represented Louisa County 
in the Legislature and was an early member of the Board 
of Visitors of the University of Virginia. It is said that 
lie walked with Jefferson, Madison and Monroe at the head 
of a procession at the opening of the university. His name 
appears among those of " the Visitors " signed to the 




BRACKETTS, LOUISA COUNTY 



minutes of their meetings between the names of Jefferson 
and Madison. 

David Watson married Sally, daughter of Garrett 
Minor, a person so capable as to warrant her description 
as a " Napoleon of a woman." She reared at Brackett's 
not only a large family of her own but also many orphans 
of her connection. 

Brackett's passed from David and Sally Watson to 
their son Thomas, who was not unlike his father in his 
literary taste. He, too, made additions to the house, and, 
marrying his cousin Elizabeth Morris, of " Sylvania," had 
a number of children. At his death, however, there was 
but a single surviving son, and as he lost his only child, 
this branch of the house of Watson is destined to become 
extinct. 



212 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

In the War between the States scions of this race cov- 
ered their name with glory. David Watson was a major 
of artillery in the Confederate Army, and received a death 
wound in the Battle of Spottsylvania Court House. The 
Magruder brothers, five in number, entered the Confed- 
erate Army, only one of them surviving the war, and he 
had lost an arm. These gallant soldiers were grandsons 
of David and Sally Watson. 

At the death of Thomas S. Watson, Brackett's was 
sold to Mr. H. C. Beattie, of Richmond, who sold it to 
Mr. Carl Nolting, the present owner. 

WEST END 

West End was the conception of Mrs. Susan Dabney 
(Morris) Watson, widow of Dr. James Watson, the eldest 
son of Major David and Sally (Minor) Watson. Dr. 
and Mrs. Watson lived at Brackett's, Major David Wat- 
son's home, during the years of their married life, while 
Mrs. Watson and her two children continued to reside 
there after her husband's death until she went to Rich- 
mond for the purpose of educating them. 

West End was finished in 1840. The site of the planta- 
tion was a portion of Brackett's inherited by Dr. Watson, 
with additions made by purchase of adjoining land. The 
site was only a field when Mrs. Watson undertook the 
work of laying off the grounds and building the attractive 
home. The trees which beautify the lawn, in pleasant 
variety, were planted under her direction and the lawn was 
enclosed with an osage orange hedge. Around the house 
were set innumerable rose bushes and other shrubs. Mrs. 
Watson designed and planted a pretty flower garden and 
beyond that a vegetable garden in which grap>e vines, fruit 
trees, currant and gooseberry bushes and the like were 
effectively arranged. 

Mrs. Watson, reserving the homestead and grounds 
for herself, divided this estate after the marriage of her 
daughter Mary Minor Watson to Henry Taylor, of West- 
moreland County. The divisions were called East End 



RICHMOND AND THE UPPER JAMES 213 

and West End. The former was allotted Mrs. Taylor, 
the latter to David Watson, the only son. The condition 
under which Mrs. Watson gave the parts of the estate to 
her children was that they should furnish her with various 
supplies. 

The War between the States came on and David 
Watson enlisted in the Richmond Howitzers. He was a 
gallant soldier and had reached the rank of major when 



WEST END, LOUISA COUNTY 



he received a fatal wound in the Battle of Spottsylvania 
Court House. Suffering a great shock from his tragic 
death, Mrs. Watson survived him only a few years. 

After David Watson's death, Mrs. Taylor went to 
live at East End with her mother and there most of her 
family of nine children were born and reared. The prop- 
erty still belongs to the Taylor family. 

SYLVANIA 

Anne Watson, or Nancy as she was called, daughter 
of Major James Watson, of Ionia, married William Mor- 
ris, known as " Creek Billy," son of William Morris, of 
Tavlor's Creek, Hanover County. " Creek Billy " built 



214 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Sylvania in the Greenspring neighborhood, in Louisa 
County, about 1790, naming it in honor of his grandfather, 
Sylvanus Morris. 

William and Anne (Watson) Morris had many chil- 
dren, and their descendants are to be found in every part 
of the United States. Among the most notable of these 
are William Fontaine, James W. Page and Thomas W. 
Page, all three professors of the University of Virginia; 
United States Naval Constructor Rear Admiral U. W. 
Taylor, and Reverend James W. Morris, rector of Monu- 
mental Church, Richmond, Virginia. 

James Morris, youngest son of William and Anne, in- 
herited Sylvania and enlarged the house. His wife was 




SYLVANIA, LOUISA COUNTY 

Caroline Smith, granddaughter of Governor James Pleas- 
ants of Virginia. From them Sylvania descended to their 
youngest son. 

" In ante-bellum days," says one who knows, " and 
especially during the trying war times, Sylvania was noted 
for its hospitality and many are the Southern soldiers who 
will remember pleasant times spent under its roof." 



PART IV 



Gloucester and the York River 
Country 



T 



O ONE familiar with the history, the geography 
and social life of Virginia, there is a fascination 
about the very name of Gloucester. A near 
of Jamestown, Williamsburg, and 



neighbor 



Yorktown, the old county is second only to them in 

scenes and days. Settlement in 



memories 



of 



stirring 




OLD WINDMILL, MATHEWS COUNTY 

Gloucester and in Mathews County, which was cut off from 
Gloucester after Colonial times, began before the Indian 
Massacre of 1644, but the country north of York River, 
then a part of Charles River or York County, was aban- 
doned for a time through fear of further trouble from the 
Indians, and the actual period of settlement began about 
1646. Not long after the middle of the seventeenth century 

215 



216 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

the line of settlement passed to the head of York River 
and gradually extended up its tributaries, including the 
present counties of New Kent, King William, King and 
Queen and Hanover, which with Gloucester and Mathews 
are included in this chapter. 

Gloucester is bounded upon one side by the York River, 
while from another, broad inlets, known as the North, the 
Ware and the Severn Rivers, run like fingers up into the 
land from Mob jack Bay — an arm of the Chesapeake. 
Though the county is one of the oldest in Virginia, very 
few of its Colonial houses remain; many of them have 
been replaced by simple modern cottages, and others by 
more imposing, but still frankly modern residences. But 
the soil is sacred, and even the least ambitious of these 
homesteads nestling among beautiful old trees, upon 
lawns that slope down to blue waters broken now and 
then by the gleam of a snowy sail and ruffled on breezy 
days with white caps, make pictures whose charm can 
neither be caught by the camera nor described in words. 

These rivers place the homes within easy reach of each 
other by sailboat or launch, and this accessibility to one 
another, together with remoteness from the rest of the 
world, has kept the characteristics of pleasant hearty " old 
Virginia " days alive in Gloucester, and has developed in 
the people a passionate loyalty to home and section. 

TIMBERNECK 

Upon the Gloucester shore, opposite Ringfield, an 
ample, rambling, old homestead gazes upon the York. 

This is Timberneck, where in an earlier house the 
Mann family lived. Mary Mann, born at Timberneck in 
1672, the only child and heiress of John Mann ( 1631-1694) 
of England and Virginia, married Mathew Page (1659- 
1703), son of Colonel John Page (1627-1691-2), the first 
of his family in Virginia, and the couple took up their 
abode at Timberneck. They named their only surviving 
son Mann, and the name has been handed down in the 
Page and related families ever since, so that though the 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 217 

family name of these Manns died out with the immigrant, 
as a surname, more than two hundred years ago, it has been 
borne as a Christian name by many descendants in every 
generation since. 

After the Revolution the Timberneck plantation passed 
to the Catlett family, who built the present house and have 




TIMBERNECK, GLOUCESTER COUNTY 

occupied it for five generations. They are descended from 
Mary (1698-1703-4), wife of John Mann, by her first 
marriage with Edmund Berkeley, of Gloucester County. 
Tombs, bearing arms of John Mann and Mary, his wife, 
may still be seen at Timberneck. 

POWHATAN'S CHIMNEY 

Upon the Timberneck estate, just across Timberneck 
Creek, from the homestead, long stood a huge old, mas- 
sively built, stone chimney. Tradition from so early a date 
that the memory of man runneth not to the contrary has 
insisted that here was the site of Werowocomoco, the favor- 
ite residence of Powhatan; that here the Princess Poca- 



218 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

hontas saved the life of Captain John Smith, and that this 
chimney belonged to the house which the English colonists 
sent Dutchmen to Werowocomoco to build for the Indian 

kin g' 

The accuracy of this tradition has been lately disputed 

by some writers, but the chimney was evidently of great 

age, and was, to say the least, a striking and interesting 

relic. Both Bishop Meade and the historian Campbell 



vs 






v> 






9- 




POWHATAN'S CHIMNEY, TLMBERNECK CREEK 

visited it and described it in their works. Campbell says: 
" The chimney stands on an eminence and is conspicuous 
from every quarter of the bay, and itself a monumental 
evidence of no inconsiderable import ... In the early days 
of the annals of Virginia, Werowocomoco is second only 
to Jamestown in historical and romantic interest ; as James- 
town was the seat of the English settlers, so Werowocomoco 
was the favorite residence of the Indian monarch, Pow- 
hatan." He adds, " Werowocomoco was a befitting seat 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 219 

of the great Chief, overlooking the bay, with its bold, pic- 
turesque, wood-crowned banks, and in view of the wide, 
majestic flood of the river, empurpled by transient cloud- 
shadows, or tinged with the rosy splendor of a summer 
sunset." 

Bishop Meade, who carefully examined the chimney, 
was satisfied that it was the one built for Powhatan. He 
says: " The fireplace was 8 feet 4 inches wide, that is the 
opening to receive the wood, and 4 feet deep and more 
than 6 feet high, so that the tallest man might walk into 
it and a number of men might sit within it around the fire. 
I inspected the only crack which was to be seen outside of 
the wall, something which showed that the material was 
of no ordinary kind of stone, but like that of which the old 
church of York was built — viz., marl out of the bank, which 
only hardens by fire and exposure, a particular kind of 
marl composed of shells which abound on some of the high 

banks of York River It is impossible to say how many 

generations of log and frame rooms have been* built to the 
celebrated chimney." 

Massive and stout as this relic of the far past seemed, 
and many as had been the storms which had beat upon it 
and left it unharmed, it has within the past few years 
tumbled to the ground, but the Association for the Pres- 
ervation of Virginia Antiquities has on foot plans looking 
toward its restoration. 

ROSEWELL 

Upon the left bank of York River, across Carter's 
Creek from Werowocomoco, stands, in a state of partial 
decay, Rosewell, the lordliest mansion of the time when 
Colonial Virginia was baronial Virginia. 

Some time after the marriage of Honorable Matthew 
Page ( 1659-1703) , a of the King's Council, to Mary Mann, 
of Timberneck, the couple removed to Rosewell, where 

1 Page, The Genealogy of the Page Family. 



220 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

they lived in a simple wooden dwelling that then stood upon 
that plantation. In 1725 their only son, Mann Page I 
(1691-1730) of Rosewell, whom the combined fortunes 
of the Page and Mann families had made extremely rich, 
built the present mansion. It was constructed in the most 
massive style, of brick with white marble casements. There 
was a great square, thick-walled, high-chimneyed, central 
building, flanked by wings — since torn down — which 
formed a court and which gave the house a frontage of 
two hundred and thirty-two feet. The central building 
stands three stories above a high basement and is capped 
by a cupola. It contains three wide halls, nine passages, 
and twenty-three rooms and the wings had six rooms each. 
Externally Rosewell house is severely plain, but with its 
ample proportions and its splendid brickwork, the absence 
of ornament makes it the more impressive. 

In striking contrast to this outside simplicity, was the 
interior, where, upon crossing the threshold of the main 
entrance, the visitor found himself at once in a great hall 
panelled with polished mahogany into which swept down, 
with generous and graceful curve, the grand stairway 
which eight persons could comfortably ascend abreast, and 
whose mahogany balustrade was carved by hand to repre- 
sent baskets of fruits and flowers. 

Not long did the builder of this princely Virginia castle 
live to enjoy it. Five years after it was begun, and before 
it was entirely finished, his body lay in state in the hall 
which he had so gorgeously adorned and the mansion de- 
signed for a pleasure house was a house of mourning. 
Bishop Meade, in his Old Churches and Families, quaintly 
comments upon what he conceived to be the vanity and 
wickedness of a man's " misspending " his fortunes upon 
so magnificent an abode for himself and family, and sug- 
gests that Mann Page's untimely death was direct punish- 
ment from Heaven for such folly. 

The first master of Rosewell had been twice married: 
first to Judith (1694-1716) , daughter of Honorable Ralph 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 223 

Wormeley( 1650-1 700) of "Rosegill," Middlesex County, 2 
who is described, in Latin, upon the " Monument of grief " 
erected by her husband in the Rosewell burying-ground, 
" as a most excellent and choice lady ... a most affection- 
ate wife, the best of mothers and an upright mistress of her 
family, in whom the utmost gentleness was united with the 
most graceful suavity of manners and conversation." 

After Mann Page's own death a splendid tomb of 
carved marble emblazoned with the Page arms was 
" piously erected to his memory by his mournfully sur- 
viving lady " — his second wife, who was Judith, daughter 
of Robert (" King ") Carter, of Corotoman, and who was 
the mother of his son, Mann Page II — the heir of Rosewell. 

This second Mann Page, of Rosewell, was also twice 
married: first to Alice Grymes, 3 and after her death to 
Ann Corbin Tayloe. His first wife, Alice (1724-1746), 
who was the daughter of Honorable John Grymes (1693- 
1748), of the Council, was the mother of the next master 
of Rosewell— John Page (1744-1808), scholar, Revolu- 
tionary patriot, member of Congress and governor of Vir- 
ginia, and one of the best as well as one of the most dis- 
tinguished men of his time. His contemporaries were so 
impressed with his lofty character and earnest piety, that 
it is said they wished to make him bishop of Virginia, 
though he had never studied for the ministry. 

While a student at William and Mary College, Gov- 
ernor Page formed an intimacy with Thomas Jefferson, 
which continued throughout his life, and it was to his chum 
John Page, of Rosewell, that the letters of the love-lorn 
Jefferson were addressed, describing the hardness of heart 
of his fair " Belinda." Doubtless Jefferson often enjoyed 
the hospitality of Rosewell and tradition says that it was in 
the cupola on the top of the house that he drafted the 

2 Wormeley family : Virginia Magazine of History and Biog- 
raphy, vii, 283-284 ; viii, 179-183. 

3 Grymes family: The Critic (Richmond, Va.)> August 18 and 
September 1, 1889. 



224 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Declaration of Independence, reading and discussing it 
with his host, before going to Philadelphia. Truly an 
inspiring place for the composition of a great state paper, 
with its wide view of sky, river and country, and if the 
story be true, there is something poetic in the thought that 
from this little observatory the author of the Declaration 
of Independence could descry the soon-to-be historic Nel- 
son House at Yorktown, fifteen miles away. 

In a letter from Governor Page, attending Congress, 
in New York, to his son " Bobby," at Rosewell, the proud 
metropolis is thus described: 

" This town is not half so large as Philadelphia, nor 
in any manner to be compared to it for beauty and elegance. 
Philadelphia I am well assured has more inhabitants than 
Boston and New York put together. The streets here 
( N. Y. ) are badly paved, very dirty and narrow as well as 
crooked, and filled up with a strange variety of wooden, 
stone and brick buildings and full of hogs and mud. The 
College, St. Paul's Church and the Hospital are elegant 
buildings. The Federal Hall also, in which Congress is 
to sit, is elegant." He further says that all the drinking 
water in New York is gotten from wells — " Four carts are 
continually going about selling it at three gallons for a 
copper; that is a penny for every three gallons of water." 

Governor Page died in 1808, after which time, though 
Rosewell was still owned by the Pages, it was very seldom 
occupied by them. In 1838, it was sold to one Booth, 
whose chief object in becoming the owner of the proud 
old pile seemed to be to bring humiliation upon it and to 
make as much money as possible out of it. The venerable 
cedars that formed the avenue from the door to the river 
were sold to make tubs. The mahogany wainscoting was 
stripped from the walls and sold, as also the lead that cov- 
ered the roof. The carved mahogany stairway was white- 
washed. Even the bricks from the graveyard wall and 
from the tombs themselves were converted into cash. This 
Booth, who had paid $12,000.00 — a mere song for such an 
estate — for Rosewell, after making about $35,000.00 by the 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 225 

work of demolition, sold it for $22,000.00. It became the 
property of the Deans family of Gloucester, in 1855, and 
is now the residence of Judge Fielding Lewis Taylor and 
his wife, who was Miss Deans. 

SHELLY 

Shelly plantation, adjoining Rosewell and originally a 
part of it, is still owned by the Pages. Its pretty and 
unique name was suggested by the great bed of oyster- 
shells upon its shore, which, says Bishop Meade, " indicate 
it to have been a great place of resort among the natives." 
Shelly was long believed to have been the site of Pow- 
hatan's residence, Werowocomoco. 

CARTER'S CREEK 

About two miles above Rosewell, upon Carter's Creek, 
stood until a few years ago, when it was, unhappily, de- 
stroyed by fire, the early seat of the Burwell family 4 of 
Virginia. Its original name was Fairfield, but it was later 
called after the stream that washed its shores, and as 
Carter's Creek it was longest known. 

Architecturally, Carter's Creek House was unique 
among Virginia mansions. Instead of the eighteenth 
century type which, though with many variations, was 
almost universal among brick dwellings in the colony, it 
followed the fashion of an earlier date and resembled the 
smaller English manor houses of the sixteenth or seven- 
teenth century. It consisted of a main building with a 
wing extending back at right angles at each end. One of 
these wings was burned, or torn away, long ago, though 
its foundation can still be traced ; the other contained a very 
large room known traditionally as " the ball room." 

There was a spacious basement whose ceiling was sup- 
ported by heavy brick arches. In the middle of this base- 
ment, entirely detached from the outer walls, was a small, 
thick-walled room, something like a modern bank vault, 

4 Burwell family : William and Mary Quarterly, vii, p. 44 et seq. 
15 



226 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

which was doubtless used as a safe for valuables. How 
handsomely some of the rooms in the house had been 
finished was shown by fragments of marble mantels found 
in the basement when the deserted old house was in a state 
of decay. The small windows and clustered chimneys were 
unlike those in most houses to be seen in Colonial Virginia 
and contributed largely to the extremely quaint appearance 
of the house. 

Carter's Creek was undoubtedly the oldest looking, 
though not the oldest mansion in Virginia. Upon one of 
its gables was in iron figures the date 1692 and, also in 
iron, the letters L. A. B. — the initials of Lewis and Abigail 
Burwell. In the year 1648, Lewis Burwell, first of his 
family in Virginia, patented 2350 acres on the south side of 
Rosewell Creek, as Carter's Creek was then called. His 
wife, Lucy, was, according to her epitaph, " the only child 
of the valiant Captain Robert Higginson, one of the first 
commanders that subdued the country of Virginia from 
the power of the heathen." 

From this couple, the Carter's Creek plantation de- 
scended to their son Lewis (died 1710), who upon his 
marriage with Abigail Smith (1656-1692), niece and 
heiress of President Nathaniel Bacon, 5 acquired a great 
estate in York County, upon which he seems to have lived 
most of the time, though he probably built the Carter's 
Creek mansion. 

That he was a prominent as well as a rich man is 
proved by the fact that he was a member of the Council 
of State. From him Carter's Creek passed to his son, 
Nathaniel Burwell, who married Elizabeth, daughter of 
Robert ("King") Carter, and was the father of Lewis 
Burwell (1710-1752), third of the name, who was presi- 
dent of the Council and acting governor of Virginia, and 
was the next heir of the Carter's Creek estate. 

President Lewis Burwell was educated at Cambridge, 

5 For an account of the Smiths and Bacons see Virginia Maga- 
zine of History and Biography, ii, 125-129. 




CARTER'S CREEK (FAIRFIELD), GLOUCESTER COUNTY 




GREEN PLAINS, MATHEWS COUNTY 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 229 

and was noted for his learning. His daughter, Rebecca, 
was one of the belles and beauties of the day, and her 
charms drew many suitors to Carter's Creek. Thomas 
Jefferson and Jacqueline Ambler (1742-1798) were 
desperately in love with her during their college days at 
William and Mary, and, in spite of Jefferson's ardent 
wooing, she finally gave her hand to Ambler. Jefferson 
fantastically called her " Belinda," and by this name refers 
to her in his letters to John Page. In one of these letters 
he says: " In the most melancholy fit that ever any poor 
soul was, I sit down to write to you. Last night, as* merry 
as agreeable company and dancing with Belinda in the 
Apollo could make me, I never could have thought the 
succeeding sun would have seen me so wretched as I now 
am. I was prepared to say a great deal. I had dressed up 
in my own mind such thoughts as occurred to me in as 
moving language as ever I knew how, and expected to 
have performed in a tolerably creditable manner." But he 
adds, " When I had an opportunity of venting them a few 
broken sentences uttered in great disorder, and interrupted 
with pauses of uncommon length, were the too visible 
marks of my strange confusion." 

In another letter to Page, he says, " If Belinda will 
not accept my services they shall never be offered to 
another." However, after events prove that he " £ot 

•■55 A & 

over it. 

As Mrs. Jacqueline Ambler, the fair Rebecca Burwell, 
of Carter's Creek, made a charming matron and passed 
many of her graces on to a bevy of attractive daughters 
who married prominent men of their day. One of them, 
Mary Willis Ambler (1766-1831), became the wife of the 
brilliant young lawyer who was later to win national fame 
as Chief Justice John Marshall. 

President Lewis Burwell's son Lewis, the next master 
of Carter's Creek, was educated in England at Eton and 
the Inns of Court, in spite of which he espoused the cause 
of American Independence in the struggle which began 
soon after his return to Virginia, and was a zealous mem- 



230 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

ber of tbe Revolutionary Conventions. He married Judith, 
daughter of Mann Page II, and has many descendants. 

In the time of the sons of this Lewis Burwell IV and 
last, of Carters Creek, the estate passed from the family 
that had so long held it and for many years before its 
destruction was in a state of ruin. 

Not far from Carter's Creek House, in the Burwell 
family burying-ground, was one of the most remarkable 
collections of tombs in Virginia, one of them dating as early 
as 1654. After the house was burned it became evident 
that steps must be taken to preserve these from total de- 
struction. They were already in a sadly dilapidated state, 
but in 1912, through the efforts of Mrs. Sally Nelson 
Robins, assisted by members of the Burwell connection, 
monuments and remains of those to whom they were erected 
were removed to Abingdon Churchyard, where now this 
beautiful and impressive group of tombs, rebuilt and re- 
stored, may be seen. 

ISLEHAM 

One of the loveliest of Gloucester's lovely rivers is the 
North, along each bank of which homesteads lie close upon 
one another, suggesting the street of a rural Venice. 

The first plantation to be passed upon entering this 
river is Isleham, in what is now Mathews County, the 
seat of Sir John Peyton (circa 1720-1790), one of the 
few baronets who made his home in Colonial Virginia.' 1 Sir 
John was an officer in the Gloucester militia during the 
Revolutionary War and was devoted to the cause of 
American Independence. 

The old house at Isleham has long since disappeared. 

GREEN PLAINS 

A little farther on, the beautiful Green Plains lawn, 
cool with the shade of century-old elms, slopes down to 
the river. The architecture of the mansion is Colonial, 

6 An account of Sir John Peyton and his descendants is given 
in Hayden, Virginia Genealogies, pp. 475-479. 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 231 

though it dates only to 1802, and its wide halls and spacious 
rooms, with their high carved mantels and deep window- 
seats, make it as charming within as without. It was built 
by James H. Roy, who had married, a few years before, 
Elizabeth, daughter of George Booth, of Belleville, on the 
opposite side, and a little farther up the river. 

Mr. Roy was the son of Mungo Roy, of Locust Grove, 
Caroline County, whose father, Dr. Mungo Roy, of Scot- 
land, was the first of the Roy family to settle in Virginia. 
He represented Mathews County in the House of Dele- 
gates in 1818-1819. He was succeeded as master of Green 
Plains by his son, William Henry Roy, who also repre- 
sented Mathews County in the Legislature in 1832-1834, 
and who was twice married: first, to Anne, daughter of 
Thomas Seddon, of Fredericksburg, and, after her death, 
to Euphan, daughter of John Macrae, of Park Gate, 
Prince William County. By his first marriage Mr. Roy 
was the father of Mrs. John C. Rutherfoord, of Rock 
Castle, and Mrs Thomas H. Carter, of Pampatike; and 
by his second, of Mrs. Washington and Mrs. Goldsbor- 
ough, of Maryland, and Mrs. H. McKendree Boyd, the 
present mistress of Green Plains. 

POPLAR GROVE 

Poplar Grove also lies in that part of old Gloucester 
County which now bears the name of Mathews. It was 
built over a century ago by Mr. John Patterson, 7 who was 
an Englishman by birth, but who, during the Revolution, 
warmly espoused the cause of American freedom. When 
he planned his house, feeling between the Whig and Tory 
parties ran high and he beautified the grounds with num- 
bers of Lombardy poplars, the party symbol of the Whigs, 
and gave the place the name of Poplar Grove. 

This charming old homestead was a noted social centre 
during the time of Mr. Patterson and of his daughters, 
Mrs. Thomas Robinson Yeatman, of Isleham, and Mrs. 

7 Patterson family: William and Mary Quarterly, xiii, 174-175. 



232 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Christopher Tompkins. Here was born and grew to 
womanhood the famous " Captain " Sally Tompkins, one 
of the most beloved and widely known of Virginia's daugh- 




POPLAB GROVE, MATHEWS COUNTY 




TIDE MILL AT POPLAR GROVE 



ters. During the War between the States she devoted her 
fortune, her time and her strength to nursing the sick and 
wounded soldiers at the hospitals in the Capital of the Con- 
federacy, and in order that she might go and come with 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 



233 



greater freedom and have the authority to order supplies 
as she needed them for her work, General Lee made her 
a regularly commissioned captain. 

Poplar Grove was long the residence of Judge G. 
Taylor Garnett. 

DITCHLEY 

Just opposite Green Plains is Ditchley, built by Dr. 
J. Prosser Tabb, to succeed an earlier house — the home- 
stead of the Singleton family. Mrs. Tabb was related to 
the Lees and named her home after the Ditchley owned by 
them in Northumberland County. 

Ditchley is now the residence of Mr. William Ashby 
Jones. 




AUBURN. MATHEWS COUNTY 

AUBURN 



Next above and adjoining Green Plains, Auburn looks 
out upon the river from a setting of grassy lawn and 
spreading elm. It was long one of the homesteads of the 
Tabb family so numerous and well known in this section, 



234 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

and was built during the last century by Mr. Philip Tabb, 
of Toddsbury, for his son, Dr. Henry Tabb. 

Auburn is now the home of Mr. Charles Heath. 

BELLEVILLE 

Across the river from Auburn is Belleville, the ancient 
seat of the Booths, formerly a prominent family of the 




BELLEVILLE, GLOUCESTER COUNTY 

county, and passing from them to their descendants, 
the Taliaferros. The house was built by Thomas Booth 
before the Revolution, but it has been remodelled and en- 
larged by its present owner, Mr. A. A. Blow. He added 
a pillared portico. 

Some of the old Booth tombs, bearing arms, still re- 
main in the family burying-ground. 

DUNHAM MASSIE 

Fannie Booth, heiress of Belleville, gave her hand to 
Warner Taliaferro, and was the mother of the gallant 
Major General William Booth Taliaferro, of the Con- 
federate Army. Upon General Taliaferro's marriage, his 
father built for him the attractive home, but a short dis- 
tance awav, which he named Dunham Massie after the 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 



235 



ancient seat of his ancestors, the Booths, in England, and 
which also looks under the boughs of the old trees that 
shade and shelter it, upon North River. 

From the close of the War between the States until 
General Taliaferro's death, at a good old age, no guest 




DUNHAM MASSIE, NORTH RIVER, GLOUCESTER COUNTY 

ever crossed the hospitable Dunham Massie threshold but 
must needs pass under the stars and bars of the " con- 
quered banner," which always hung in the hall just over 
the front door. 

CHURCH HILL 

Somewhat back from North River, upon the road to 
Gloucester Court House and near old Ware Church, stands 
still another Taliaferro homestead — quaint Church Hill, a 
relic of early Colonial days. This was the original seat of 
the Throckmortons, 8 but passed to the Taliaferros by the 

8 Throckmorton family: William and Mary Quarterly, ii, 241- 
247 ; iii, 46-52, 192-195, 240-242 ; iv, 128-129 ; v, 54-55 ; Virginia 
Magazine of History and Biography, viii, 83-89, 309-312 ; ix, 
192-194. 



236 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

marriage of Dr. William Taliaferro with two daughters 
and co-heiresses of the house of Throckmorton. 

The Throckmortons, descended from the old family of 
Throckmorton, of Hail-Weston, Huntingdonshire, Eng- 
land, were long prominent in the social and political life of 
Gloucester. Their name is now extinct there, though 
numerously represented in other parts of the country. 

Church Hill is now the property of Judge James 
Lyons Taliaferro. Only one wing of the original house 
remains. 

ELMINGTON 

Returning to North River, we find, just above Dunham 
Massie, Elmington, one of the choicest estates in the old 
county. The mansion looks upon the river from a setting 




ELMINGTON, NORTH RIVER, GLOUCESTER COUNTY 

of lovely grounds and within there are spacious rooms 
and hall, and a wide stairway winding to an upper story 
capped by an observatory. 

During the Colonial period, the Elmington plantation 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 



237 



was the home of the Whiting family, long prominent in 
Virginia as members of " his Majesty's Council " and of 
the House of Burgesses and Conventions. The present 
house was built by Dr. Prosser Tabb. 

Elmington has some literary associations. Soon after 
the War between the States, a Mr. Talbot, who is said to 
have bought it from the Tabbs for Confederate money, sold 
it to Colonel George Wythe Munford, author of that 
quaint and entertaining book, The Two Parsons; later 
Mr. Virginins Dabney made it the scene of his novel Don 
Miff, which was one of the " best sellers " of the year in 
which it was issued. Later still it was the home of the 
widely read and discussed novelist, Thomas Dixon, who 
added a pillared portico to the mansion. 




THE EXCHANGE, NORTH RIVER, GLOUCESTER COUNTY 



THE EXCHANGE 

Adjoining Elmington is The Exchange, the homestead 
of Dr. Dabney, a distinguished physician of his day. It is 



238 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

now owned and occupied by his descendants, the Misses 
Dabney, whose mother was a Miss Tabb, of Toddsbury. 




ICE-HOUSE AT EXCHANGE 



TODDSBURY 



Next above The Exchange is Toddsbury, one of the 
most charming as well as one of the oldest houses in 
Gloucester. On North River and standing close to the 
water's edge, amid splendid trees, the homestead, with its 
gambrel roof, quaint porch-chamber, and other evidences 
of antiquity, makes a delightful picture. The interior is 
fully as interesting, with its panelled rooms and arched and 
deeply recessed windows. Between these windows and the 
high wainscoted mantels are little cupboards which suggest 
hidden mysteries and excite the curiosity to a pleasurable 
degree. 

The house was probably built by Thomas Todd, 9 a 
wealthy merchant and planter, who married Anne 

9 Todd family : Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 
iii, '79-83. An interesting chart of the English ancestry of Ann 
Gorsuch, wife of Thomas Todd I, is given Ibid., xvii, 292-293. 




TODDSBURY, NORTH RIVER (FRONT), GLOUCESTER COUNTY 




TODDSBURY (REAR) 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 241 

Gorsuch, a niece of the poet Richard Lovelace, and died 
in 1676. With his great-grandson, Thomas Todd, of 
Toddsbury, the male line of his branch of the family be- 
came extinct and Toddsbury passed to his grandson's 
nephew, Philip Tabb, who was succeeded by his son, 
Thomas Todd Tabb, who died in 1835. Later the estate 
passed from the Tabb family, and is now the residence of 
the Motts. 

The Toddsbury graveyard, where a wonderful old wil- 
low keeps guard over the last resting place of numerous 
Todds and Tabbs and their kindred, is second only to the 
homestead in interest. 10 It contains more tombstones, 
perhaps, than any other family burying-ground in Virginia. 
One of these dates from as early as the year 1703 and one 
older still is so worn that it is impossible to decipher its 
inscription. 

NEWSTEAD 

Upon part of the old Toddsbury estate is Newstead, 
built in 1856 by John H. Tabb and now the home of the 
Misses Tabb. 

WAVERLY 

Next above Newstead is Waverly, a commodious 
mansion built by Mr. Philip Tabb, of Toddsbury, for his 
son Edward, at about the time he built Auburn, farther 
down the river, for his son Dr. Harry Tabb. 

Waverly is now the residence of Mrs. Gerard Hopkins. 

MIDLOTHIAN 

Near the head of North River stands quaint Mid- 
lothian, with its steep roof and dormer windows, built by 
Mr. Josiah Deans a century and a quarter ago. It is now 
the home of the Davidsons. 



10 The inscriptions on the tombstones at Toddsbury are pub- 
lished in William and Mary Quarterly, iii, 115 et seq. 

16 



242 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

WHITE MARSH 

Inland, but in the midst of ample and picturesque 
grounds lies fair White Marsh. During the Colonial 
period a branch of the well-known Whiting family owned 
this plantation, occupying an earlier homestead. After 
the Revolution it became the property of the distinguished 
lawyer Thomas Reade Rootes (1764/5-1824), and at his 
death, in 1824, passed to his widow (who was his second 
wife) , who had been a Mrs. Prosser, and who left it to her 





P*fc 














V 




* 


■ 




'■■■ - :■". 


1- 





WHITE MARSH, <.!.< >l< ESTER COUNTY 



daughter by her first marriage, Evelina Matilda Prosser. 
Miss Prosser gave her hand and her fortune to John Tabb, 
son of Philip Tabb, of Toddsbury, who with his wife's 
estate added to his own became the wealthiest man in 
Gloucester County. 

Mrs. Tabb made at White Marsh a terraced garden, 
which became famous. Among its unique and beautiful 
features were arbor-vitae trees planted and trimmed to 
form summer houses with running roses climbing over 
them. Mr. and Mrs. Tabb's son Philip was the next master 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 243 

of White Marsh, while their son John fell heir to Elming- 
ton, on North River. 

Since it passed from the Tabbs White Marsh has had 
several owners, one of whom, among other changes, gave 
the mansion a pillared portico. 

GOSHEN 

Crossing from the North to the Ware River region, we 
find ourselves at Goshen, a comfortable looking homestead 
in a pleasant yard, with a beautiful water view. Within, 
the high mantels and other quaint details give the big 
square rooms an interesting air and bear witness to a good 
old age. 

Goshen was the original seat of the well-known Tomp- 
kins family, of which " Captain Sally Tompkins " is a 
member, but it is now and has been for a long time the 
home of the Perrins. 

GLENROY 

Just opposite Goshen, Ware River circles almost 
around the grounds of the Glenroy estate, making it a 
peninsula, and giving it an unusually picturesque site. 
Tradition says that upon this spot stood the earliest 
Colonial church in Gloucester County, and the story gains 
color from the fact that upon opposite sides of the lane 
leading into the place are two fields known as far back as 
any one can remember as " the Church field " and " the 
glebe field," and in " the church field " some ancient tombs 
may still be seen. In view of this tradition it seems most 
fitting that the Glenroy plantation should have been the 
home of a rector of the two remaining Colonial churches 
of the county, Reverend Armistead Smith, a descendant 
of the old Smith family of Gloucester, and of Honorable 
John Armistead of the Colonial Council. He married 
Martha Tabb, of Seaford, Mathews County, the earliest 
seat of the Tabb family in this region, and brought her to 
the old-fashioned homestead that stood upon this river- 



244 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

girt plantation. The house with all the sweet associations 
that cluster about the rectory of a Virginia country parish 
was destroyed by fire about half a century ago, and their 
son and heir, Mr. William Patterson Smith, built the 
goodly mansion which now stands upon the Glenroy lawn 
among the spreading elms and towering poplars. 




GLENROY, WARE RIVER 

Mr. William Patterson Smith married Marian, one of 
the beauties of the well-known Virginia family of Seddon, 
and under their rule the new Glenroy kept up the best 
traditions of the old. 

Glenroy is now the residence of Dr. W. R. Jaeger. 

WHITE HALL 

A short distance higher up, and across the river from 
" Glenroy," we find a Colonial mansion charmingly em- 
bowered in the foliage of ancient trees. This is White Hall, 
for many years before the Revolution the seat of the Willis 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 



245 



family, prominent in Virginia in both social and public 
life. 11 For several generations past it has been owned 
and occupied by a branch of the Byrd family, descended 
from the Westover Byrds, and is at present the home of 
Captain Richard C. Byrd. 

The tomb of the wife of one of the Willises of White 




WHITE HALL. WARE RIVER 



Hall, bearing her arms impaled with those of her husband, 
may be seen at old Ware Church, a few miles away. 

HOCKLEY 

Hockley, a spacious house in attractive grounds, was 
formerly the home of Colonel Alexander Taliaferro. It 
is now owned and occupied by Mr. R. P. Taliaferro. 

In early times the plantation bore the name of Cowslip 
Green. 



11 Willis, A Sketch of the Willis Family of Virginia and Their 
Kindred. Richmond : Whittet & Shepperson (1900) ; William and 
Mary Quarterly, v, 24-27, 171-176; vi, 27-29, 206-214. 



246 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

LOWLAND COTTAGE 

Lowland Cottage nestling among venerable trees is one 
of the oldest homesteads on Ware River, and indeed in 
the county. It was an early seat of the Gloucester families 
of Warner, Throckmorton and Jones and is now the home 
of Major Thomas S. Taliaferro, a gallant officer of the 
Confederate Army. 

AIRVILLE 

Airville, a pleasant, roomy old house, commanding 
a fine view not only of the Ware River, but of Mob jack 
Bay beyond, was in the early days the seat of the Dixon 




AIRVILLE, GLOUCESTER COUNTY 

family, descended from the Reverend John Dixon, a 
Colonial minister. 12 Later it passed to the possession of 
Major Thomas Smith, and is now the home of Messrs. 
Thomas G. and Walter C. Harwood. 

Nearby, in the graveyard on the Mount Pleasant es- 
tate, where traces of a house are still to be seen, are some 
Dixon tombs. 

12 Dixon family: William and Mary Quarterly, x, pp. 272-273. 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 247 

THE SHELTER 

Modest, but exceedingly interesting is The Shelter, 
with its gambrel-roofed, L-shaped wing and towering, out- 
side chimneys. 

In this quaint dwelling, Miss Mollie Elliott Seawell, 
the distinguished authoress, was born and grew to woman- 
hood. It is now the home of her brother, Mr. J. Hairston 
Seawell. 

WARNER HALL 

One of the most famous homes in Gloucester County 
and in Virginia was Warner Hall, on the banks of the 
Severn — the old seat of the Warner, Lewis and Clark 
families 13 — built in 1674. After its almost complete de- 
struction by fire, in 1849, it long lay in ruins, but it has 
since been restored by Mr. Maynard A. Cheney, and once 
more the extensive and beautiful grounds of the old planta- 
tion are graced by a spacious and handsome mansion. 

A son of Mr. Colin Clark, last owner of the original 
Warner Hall, described the house as "a brick building of 
three stories and a basement, and together with a two- 
room addition (and the basement) included eighteen 
rooms. There were also on either side of the main house 
two detached brick houses of six and five rooms respectively, 
used for kitchen, laundry, servants' room, etc." Some time 
before Mr. Clark's purchase, the five-room house was 
united with the main building by a two-room addition, so 
that the whole of the mansion contained twenty-five rooms, 
and had a front of about 130 feet. First, in 1841, the five- 
room house was destroyed by fire, and in 1849 the central 

13 The Warners are treated in Robinson, Some Notable Families 
of America, and in various notes in Virginia Magazine of History 
and Biography and William and Mary Quarterly; for Lewis 
family see William and Mary Quarterly, ix, 191-192, 250-265; 
x, 18; xi, 39-17; for the darks who lived at "Warner's Hall" 
see Goode, Virginia Cousins, pp. 229-373 et seq. 



248 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 



part of the mansion burned down, leaving only the six- 
room wing standing. The second fire, we are told, 
originated " in the desire of a negro boy to have the family 
remove from the country to Norfolk, whose joys he had 
tasted on trips with his young masters." 

The Warner Hall estate was patented about the middle 
of the seventeenth century by Augustine Warner, Senior 
(1610-1674) , long a member of his Majesty's Council and 

a man who 
was to have 
a unique 
place in Vir- 
ginia family 
history, for 
both George 
Washington 
and Robert 
E. Lee were 
descended 
from him. 
Upon his 
death, in 

El 674, Warner Hall passed to his 
son, Augustine Warner, Jr. (1642- 
1681 ) , speaker of the House of Bur- 
gesses in the famous " reforming " 
assembly during Bacon's Rebellion, in 1676, and also a 
member of the Council. 

After the burning of Jamestown when " the prosper- 
ous Rebel " went into Gloucester County he made Warner 
Hall his headquarters for a time, and it was from there 
that he sent out notices for the people to assemble to take 
the oath of fidelity to him. 

Augustine Warner, Jr., died in 1681, leaving several 
sons, who died in youth, and three daughters: Mary, who 
became the wife of John Smith of Purton, Gloucester; 





WARNER HALL ON THE SEVERN, 
GLOUCESTER COUNTY 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 



249 



Mildred, who married, first, Lawrence Washington, of 
Westmoreland (grandfather of General Washington), 
and, secondly, George Gale; and Elizabeth, the heiress of 
' Warner Hall," who became the wife of John Lewis, of 
Gloucester. Lewis, therefore, became master of this es- 
tate and was a prominent man in the County and Colony 
and a member of his Majesty's Council, as was also his son 
and heir, John Lewis, Jr. (1702-1754). 

Warner Hall remained in the possession of the Lewises 
for generations, sending out in the meantime branches of 
the family throughout the United States. It was in the 
last century that the estate was bought by Mr. Colin Clark, 
who preserved the fame for hospitality that it had always 
enjoyed, up to the time of its deplorable destruction. 

Not far from the restored mansion may be seen the 
old graveyard containing the ancient tombs of the Warners, 
Lewises and others. Some of these date from the seven- 
teenth century. 




SHERWOOD, GLOUCESTER COUNTY 

SHERWOOD 



Ample grounds, a fine river view and piazzas of gen- 
erous proportions make Sherwood, the roof-tree of the 



250 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Seldens 14 and Dimmocks, descended from the Lewises of 
Warner Hall, an ideal country home. Among the charms 
of the place are the ten-acre lawn, shaded by elms, maples, 
magnolias, tulip poplars, pecan and other trees, and the 
old garden equally well furnished with sweet and beautiful 
flowers and interesting shrubs. 

It is now the home of Mr. and Mrs. H. A. Williams. 

LEVEL GREEN 

Also on the Ware is Level Green, which in the past was 
long the home of the Robins family, 15 a plantation noted 
in the political annals of Gloucester as the place where 
Henry Clay landed during a famous campaign. 




EAGLE POINT, GLOUCESTER COUNTY 

EAGLE POINT 

John Randolph Bryan, who was a namesake of John 
Randolph of Roanoke and was educated under his care, 

14 Selden family (Sherwood branch): William and Mary 
Quarterly, v, 60-62, 264-267. 

15 Robins family: Virginia Magazine of History and Biog- 
raphy, ii, 187-189/316-317. 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 251 

married Randolph's greatly beloved niece, Elizabeth 
Tucker Coalter. This couple made Eagle Point, on the 
Severn, one of the most noted homes in Gloucester from 
1830 until 1862, when it was broken up by the war, and 
the estate passed out of the Bryan family. It was bought 
back by the late Mr. Joseph Bryan, of Laburnum, Henrico 
County, and by him the house was greatly enlarged and 
beautified and its reputation for genuine old Virginia hos- 
pitality re-established. 

Full of poetic as well as of antiquarian interest, is the 
family graveyard, uniquely situated upon a pine-shaded 
islet in the. river, not far from the house. 

SEVERNBY 

Upon what was once a part of the Eagle Point planta- 
tion, Mr. Alfred W. Withers has built Severnby, a delight- 
ful home overlooking the river. 

LANSDOWNE 

Also on the Severn is Lansdowne, the old home of the 
Thrustons 16 (who still own it), a family resident in 
Gloucester for many generations. 

HESSE 

In a remote situation upon the Pianketank, a stream 
that separates the counties of Gloucester and Middlesex, 
stands, solitary and alone, Hesse, one of the most vener- 
able brick mansions in Virginia. The Armisteads, who 
built and long owned it, were among the earliest settlers 
in Gloucester and were prominent in private and public 
life during the Colonial period. For many generations 
" Armistead of Hesse " was as well known as a family 
designation in Virginia, as " Harrison of Brandon " or 

16 Thruston family: William and Mary Quarterly, iv, 31-33, 
97-102, 164-171, 226-234; vii, 17-24, 181-186. 



252 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 



" Carter of Shirley." The estate passed out of the Armi- 
stead family something like a century ago, and their name, 
though numerous elsewhere, is not now to be found in the 
county which was so long their home, but large numbers 
of persons scattered through the country trace their an- 
cestry to ancient Hesse. A portion of the original mansion 
was long ago torn down. 



.♦v #*-.*. 




HESSE, GLOUCESTER COUNTY 

Honorable John Armistead, of Hesse (son of William 
Armistead, the emigrant) , was a member of " his Majesty's 
Council " in the latter part of the seventeenth century. 17 
He was succeeded as master of the estate by his son Henry, 
who won as his bride, over all other suitors, the fascinating 
Martha Burwell, daughter of Honorable Lewis Burwell, 
the young lady with whom Governor Sir Francis Nicholson 
was so much in love that he vowed that should she marry 

17 Armistead family : William and Mary Quarterly, vi, 31—33 ; 
97-102, 164-171, 226-234; vii, 17-24, 181-186. 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 253 

anyone but himself, he would kill three persons — the bride- 
groom, the clerk granting the license and the clergyman 
performing the ceremony. The threat was not carried out, 
however, for as far as is known, the fair Martha and the 
husband of her choice, Henry Armistead, " lived happily 
ever after " at Hesse. One of their daughters, Lucy, 
married " Secretary " Thomas Nelson (1716-1782) , son of 
Thomas Nelson, the emigrant, and another, Martha, be- 
came the wife of Dudley Digges, member of the first 
Executive Council of the State of Virginia. 

Henry Armistead was succeeded as master of Hesse 
by his son William, who married Mary, daughter of Hon- 
orable James Bowles of Maryland, a lady of large fortune, 
and died about 1755, leaving a son and heir, a second 
William Armistead, of Hesse, who married, in 1765, 
Maria, daughter of Charles Carter, of Cleve, by his second 
wife Anne, daughter of Honorable William Byrd II, of 
Westover. From letters which have been preserved, writ- 
ten to Mrs. Maria Carter Armistead, or " Molly," as she 
was familiarly called, she seems to have been a favorite 
with her friends and family. One of these written by her 
uncle, William Byrd, 3d, of Westover, upon hearing of 
her engagement to William Armistead, is as follows: 

" My Dear Niece : 

I was in great Hopes, as well as your Aunt and Grandmamma, 
that you would have given us the Pleasure of your Company at 
Westover e'er now, & should have rejoiced in an Opportunity of 
convincing you of my Affection. Report informs us you are 
going to be married very soon ; I wish it had been agreeable to you 
to have given some of your Friends here Notice of it, because we 
think ourselves interested in your Happiness ; for my part I shall 
always be glad to contribute to it. Mr. Armistead is a young 
gentleman entirely acceptable to us, & we sincerely wish you both 
Blessing of the married State. Be pleased my Dear Molly to 
present my best Compliments to him, & accept yourself of our 
Love and tender Friendship. I & the rest of your Relations here 
beg the Favor of you & Mr. Armistead to spend your Christmas 



254 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

at Westover, where many young People are to make merry; & 
give our Love to your Sisters & bring them with you. Our Coach 
shall attend you any where at any time. 

I ever am 

My Dear Niece 

Your most affe. 
Uncle 
Westover Nov: 25th. 1765. W. Byrd." 

The only surviving son of William and Maria Carter 
Armistead was Charles Byrd Armistead, who inherited 
Hesse, but some time after his death, in 1797, leaving no 
descendants, the estate, which contained 3879 acres, passed 
from the Armistead family. 

GLOUCESTER CHURCHES 

" The history of Gloucester," says Sally Nelson Robins, 
in her charming sketch of the old county, " is woven in the 
registers of its Colonial churches. Names faded on the old 
roll wear a fresher lustre on the parish books of to-day. 
Where the fathers worshipped the sons still kneel." 

The earliest parishes in Gloucester were Petsworth and 
Kingston, the latter in what is now known as Mathews 
County. As long ago as 1861 it was written of the former, 
" Petsworth exists only on paper : its church and wor- 
shippers have alike ceased to be." The existence "on 
paper " as seen in the tattered vestry book is interesting 
as showing how well cared for was the ancient temple. 
Under date 1684 we read, " His Excellency the Governor 
having given to the church one large Bible, one book of 
Common Prayer, one book of Homilies, the Thirty-nine 
Articles, and books of Canons of the Church of England, 
it is ordered that the clerk of the vestry enter the same in 
the register, to the end His Lordship's so pious a gift may 
be gratefully remembered." In the same year it was 
" Ordered that the clerk enter into the register of this 
parish the generous and pious gift of the Honorable 
Augustine Warner, deceased, to this church, viz., one silver 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 



Z55 



flagon which though long since given hath not yet been 
entered." In 1735, " there were great subscriptions made 
by the present vestry for an organ, to be purchased for 
the use of the church at Petsworth," also, it was directed 
that seven hundred gold leaves be ordered for the use of 
the painter. In 1751 the vestry ordered from England a 
" pulpit and table cloth and cushion," at cost of £154. 16. 6 
current money. The cloth was to be of " crimson velvet 
with a gold fringe and lace." The rear wall of the chancel 
rejoiced in an elaborate fresco representing a crimson cur- 




WARE CHURCH, GLOUCESTER COUNTY 



tain drawn back to reveal an angel with a trumpet in his 
hand, standing amidst rolling clouds, from which the faces 
of other angels looked. 

Though the glory of old Petsworth, or "Poplar Spring" 
church, as it was sometimes called, has long since departed, 
Gloucester still possesses two well preserved and comely 
Colonial houses of worship — Abington and Ware— where 
the great-grandchildren of those that sleep in the tombs 
outside repeat upon Sundays the old liturgy of the early 
days. Ware church was built in 1693, upon land granted 



256 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

to the parish by the Throckmorton family. A brick in the 
older part of Abington bears the date 1660, while upon 
the arch of the door appear the figures 1765. Upon the 




ABINGTON CHURCH. GLOUCESTER COUNTY 

outer wall of Ware is the tombstone of the Reverend James 
Black, a native of England and for many years rector of 
Ware parish, who died in 1723. For the sake of comfort 
and convenience the interiors of both churches were long 
since modernized, but Mrs. Robins tells us that as late as 
1867 " the flagstones of old Abington echoed the crisp foot- 
tread of the worshipper. The pews were square, with 
seats all around, and stiff carpet-covered footstools stood 
beneath, on which prim children sat and often munched 
Shrewsbury cakes, drawn from their Mothers' reticule." 
She adds, " I have heard that excessive wriggling was 
sometimes summarily checked by a tap from a heelless 
slipper." 

GLOUCESTER COURT HOUSE 

In Virginia the court house has always been the business 
and political centre of the county. In Gloucester as in 
most other counties the county seat contains a few old 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 



257 



dwellings, brick and frame, one or more inns, or taverns as 
they were generally termed in Virginia, and, of course, the 
county court house with its appurtenances. 









. m lii 



~Mr 



TAVERN AT GLOUCESTER COURT HOUSE 



ST. PETER'S CHURCH, NEW KENT 

The Pamunkey and Mattapony Rivers joining, form 
the York. At the meeting point, above old Y r ork and 
Gloucester Counties, lie the newer counties of New Kent 
(south of the Pamunkey), King William (between Pa- 
munkey and Mattapony), and King and Queen, north 
of Mattapony and bordering on still another series of 
counties, those along the Rappahannock. 

The tide of emigration entering York River at its 
mouth flowed up each side of it and spread out along the 
banks of both the Pamunkey and the Mattapony. In 
1654, New Kent, which may be called one of the second 
generation of Virginia Counties, was formed. It then in- 
cluded the present King and Queen and King William 
Counties. At a later period, as the settlements went inland, 
Hanover was formed from King William and King and 

17 



258 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Queen, and the stream of emigration coming up from York 
River mingled, above tide-water, with that which had 
ascended the James. 

The most notable building now to be seen in New Kent 
County is old St. Peter's Church, 18 within whose walls tra- 
dition long persisted General Washington and Martha 
Custis were married. It is now believed that this interest- 
ing wedding was a home affair, taking place at the Custis 




ST. PETER'S CHURCH, NEW KENT COUNTY 

homestead, the White House, not far away; and St. 
Peter's is often spoken of as " the church in which Wash- 
ington was not married." 

The church, all but its steeple, which was added later, 
was built in 1703, at a cost of one hundred and forty-six 



18 The Parish Register of Saint Peter's, New Kent County, Va., 
and The Vestry Book of Saint Peter's, New Kent, were published 
in Richmond, Virginia, in 1904 and 1905 respectively, by the 
National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State 
of Virginia. 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 259 

thousand weight of tobacco. The parish, however, had been 
in existence some years before. One of its earliest min- 
isters was the Reverend Nicholas Moreau, a Huguenot, 
who seems to have been a man of deep piety, and so were 
some others, but the parish was not always so fortunate. 

Ministers and laymen expressed themselves forcefully 
in those days. Pious Parson Moreau wished to have a 
bishop in Virginia, and, in one of his letters to the Bishop 
of London, says, " An Eminent Bishop being sent over 
here will make Hell tremble and settle the Church of Eng- 
land forever." He describes the New Kent fold as " the 
very worst parish in Virginia and most troublesome," but 
adds, " God has blessed my endeavors so far already that 
with his assistance I have brought again to church two 
families who had gone to Quaker's meeting for three years 
past." 

Reverend David Mossom, who came to Virginia from 
Massachusetts, and was rector of the parish for forty years, 
was hardly ideal, but by way of apology for him, Bishop 
Meade feelingly informs us that he " was married four 
times, and much harassed by his last wife." Contemporary 
accounts hint of outbursts of temper on the part of this 
much-married and much-harassed parson, especially of a 
quarrel with the clerk of the parish, which was carried so 
far that one Sunday Mr. Mossom assailed the clerk from 
the pulpit, threatening to give him a beating, after which 
the clerk struck back by lining out from his desk the psalm 
containing the following: 

" With restless and ungoverned rage 
Why do the heathen storm? 
Why in such rash attempts engage 
As they can ne'er perform? " 

CEDAR GROVE 

An interesting New Kent homestead is Cedar Grove, 
an old roof-tree of the Christian family. Here President 



260 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

John Tyler was married to his first wife, Letitia, daughter 
of Robert Christian. 




CEDAR GROVE, NEW KENT COUNTY 



PROVIDENCE FORGE 

The chief interest of the Providence Forge estate is 
that, as its name suggests, it was the site of Colonial iron- 
works. It first appears upon record as the property of 
the Reverend Charles Jeffrey Smith, A.M., a Presbyterian 
minister from Long Island, who died about 1770. His 
partner was William Holt, of Williamsburg. At the time 
of Mr. Smith's death there was a " well-built forge " on 
the place. Mr. Smith's lands were purchased by Francis 
Jerdone (1720-1 771 ), 19 a Scotchman, who had acquired a 
large estate at Yorktown, but who, in 1753, had removed 
to Louisa County. He died in 1771, and in the Virginia 
Gazette is spoken of as " an eminent merchant, who had 
acquired a handsome fortune with the fairest reputation." 

The estate remained long in the possession of his de- 
scendants. 

19 Jerdone: William and Mary Quarterly, xi, p. 153 et seq.; 
xii, 32. 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 



261 



Old account books mention bar iron, broad hoes and 
grubbing hoes as the articles manufactured at Providence 




PROVIDENCE FORGE, NEW KENT COUNTY 



Forge 



There are still some signs of the old forge at the 
place and there is a deep canal, no doubt cut before the 
Revolution, for the purpose of the work started by 
Reverend Mr. Smith and Mr. Holt. 

The comfortable old dormer-windowed, frame dwell- 
ing, on the estate, still in excellent repair, stands close to 
the tracks at Providence Forge Station, on the Chesapeake 
and Ohio Railway. 

HAMPSTEAD 

The handsomest house in New Kent County is stately 
Hampstead, long the home of the Webb family. These 
Webbs were prominent in Virginia from the early eigh- 
teenth century. Some of them were members of the House 
of Burgesses. One of them, George Webb, was treasurer 
of Virginia during the Revolution and for some time after- 
ward, and other representatives of the name have been 
distinguished in the United States and Confederate States 
Navies. 

Hampstead was built by Conrad Webb, in 1820, as 



262 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

the date in gilt figures upon the cornice proclaims. It 
stands upon the top of a high hill overlooking lovely 
grounds and gardens, and a wide sweep of country. The 
front and rear entrances of the mansion are alike. In front 
the white marble steps descend to a box-hedged walk, from 
which a circular carriage drive sweeps around a central 
plot, with a sun-dial in the middle, and filled with shrubs, 
familiar and rare, some of them brought from Europe. 
The grounds beyond this circle are set with beautiful and 




HAMPSTEAD, NEW KENT COUNTY 

interesting trees, many of which, like the shrubs, came 
across the water to contribute to the charm of a Virginia 
gentleman's home. 

From the rear entrance, the gardens fall away in four 
terraces, filled with flowers and fruits and vegetables and 
adorned with summer-houses and trellises, over which old- 
fashioned roses clamber. Flowering shrubs border the 
walks and screen from view the squares devoted to the more 
useful than ornamental purposes of the garden. 

The mansion stands four stories high including the 
English basement and attic. It is divided in the middle 
by a great hall whose ceiling is supported on one side by 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 



263 



columns, and from which a splendid stairway winds to an 
observatory which affords a view of the country for miles 
around. 

In the high-pitched English basement was the Webb 
library with its books — in built-in shelves around the walls 
and up to the ceiling — among them many a " quaint and 
curious volume of forgotten lore." Also in the basement 
was the servants' hall and innumerable store rooms and 




THE HALL, HAMPSTEA1) 



lock rooms; the wine cellar and the " fat cellar " (a dark 
cool room connected with the outer world by a brick- walled 
passage), in which fresh meats were kept. The basement 
had its alluring nooks and corners, but it could not vie in 
charm with the attic, where the ghost of Mr. Conrad Webb 
dwelt among the trunks and chests filled with wearing 
apparel of past generations, bundles of old letters and 
broken toys. One who spent her early days at Hampstead 
tells how, on rainy days, the children would play in the 
attic without a qualm all day long, but if dark overtook 



264 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

them in the midst of their games, would stick their fingers 
in their ears and run for their lives down the winding stair 
to the safety of lamp-light and grown-up folk, in terror 
lest the ghost should catch them. The same narrator tells 
of the great ice-house in the grounds, whose dark chill 
depths seemed to childish minds to be the abode of un- 
guessed mysteries. 

Upon one of the outhouses at Hampstead was a bell- 
tower in which hung what came to be both " passing bell " 
and " fire bell," though its main object was to call farm 
hands to meals from their work in different parts of the 
large estate. If there was so much as a chimney afire the 
familiar tones of the bell would at once give the alarm, 
while when there was a death in the Webb connection any- 
where in the neighborhood, a messenger would be sent 
forthwith to toll the Hampstead bell. 

Hampstead is now the property and residence of Mr. 
W. J. Wallace. 




ELTHAM, NEW KENT COUNTY 

ELTHAM, CLOVER LEA, AND THE WHITE 

HOUSE 

Before the War between the States New Kent con- 
tained other dwellings, which, like Hampstead, were spa- 
cious mansions. 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 



265 



Eltham was long the home of the Bassetts, a family 
whose emigrant ancestor, Captain William Bassett, had 
served in the Civil War, in England, and in the English 
garrison at Tangier. He died in 1672 and was succeeded 
at Eltham by his son, Hon. William Bassett ( 1672-1723) , 
who was a member of the Council and whose handsome 
armorial tomb has now been removed to Hollywood 
Cemetery, Richmond. A third William Bassett, who was 
a member of the House of Burgesses and died in 1744, was 
in turn succeeded by his son, Burwell Bassett, who was 
frequently in the House of Burgesses and died in 1793. 
This Burwell Bassett was first succeeded by his eldest son, 
another Burwell Bassett (who was for* many years a 
member of Congress), but as he died without issue, the 
estate was inherited by his younger brother, John Bassett, 




CLOVER LEA, HANOVER COUXTY 



who removed to " Farmington," Hanover County, and 
afterwards built Clover Lea, in the same county, where he 
died in 1862. Clover Lea was inherited by his son, George 
Washington Bassett, who was the last of the family to own 
the property. The house was beautifully wainscoted in 



266 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

black walnut and the stairs are of the same material. The 
mantels are of carved white marble. This was one of the 
handsomest houses in Hanover County. Clover Lea still 
remains, but Eltham was burned in 1876. Fortunately 
Mr. Herbert A. Claiborne, of Richmond, a descendant of 
the Bassetts, owns an excellent drawing of Eltham, which 
he has kindly allowed to be copied. 

The White House, on the Pamunkey River, originally 
an estate of several thousand acres, was owned by the 
eccentric Counsellor John Custis, of " Arlington," North- 
ampton County, and became the home of his son, Daniel 
Parke Custis, the first husband of Mrs. Martha Washing- 
ton. To this house the youthful Colonel went courting 
and here he married the fair widow. The estate was in- 
herited by her great-granddaughter, Mrs. Robert E. Lee, 
who, a refugee from Arlington, near Washington, was 
living at the White House when McClellan's army ad- 
vanced up the Peninsula. When she left the house she 
placed a card on the door requesting protection for the 
home of Martha Washington. The appeal was unhappily 
not heeded and the old house was burnt. Mrs. Lee's son, 
General Wm. H. F. Lee, lived on the estate for some years 
after the War between the States. 

CHELSEA 

In King William County, which lies between the 
Pamunkey and Mattapony Rivers, several well-known 
homesteads are to be found. Perhaps the oldest of these 
is Chelsea, the venerable home of the Moores, on the Mat- 
tapony. It is a spacious brick house bearing many evidences 
of antiquity and was probably named after Chelsea in Eng- 
land, the home of Sir Thomas Moore, from whom the 
Virginia Moores claim descent. 

Augustine Moore, the first of this family, settled here 
about the year 1700, and his tomb may still be seen at 
Chelsea. His son Bernard Moore, a prominent man of his 
day and long a member of the House of Burgesses, married 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 



2(>7 



Anne Katherine, eldest daughter of Governor Alexander 
Spotswood (1676-1740). Though her husband was loyal 
to Virginia during the Revolution, it is said that this fair 
and spirited daughter of a royal governor disobeyed the 
official prohibition of tea-drinking and defiantly sipped the 
tabooed beverage. She was prudent enough, however, to 
shut herself up in her room for the indulgence. 




CHELSEA, KING WILLIAM COUNTY 



The Moores owned Chelsea until the extinction of the 
family in the male line and then it passed, by descent, to 
the Robinsons, who owned it up to a few years ago, when 
it was sold by Mr. Lieper Moore Robinson. It is now 
owned by Messrs. L. P. and Stanley Reed, of Richmond 

ELSING GREEN 

Another striking old house in King William County is 
Elsing Green. This estate was originally owned by 
Captain William Dandridge, of the British Navy, who 



268 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

was also a member of the Virginia Council. 20 The mansion, 
a massive brick structure, has been several times burnt 
out, but the walls are so strong that the fires have not 
affected the external appearance, though they greatly 
altered the arrangement of the rooms. 

From the Dandridges, Elsing Green passed to Carter 
Braxton, signer of the Declaration of Independence, who 
rebuilt the house in 1758. Over the west door may still be 
seen the initials " C. B." and date " 1758," and on the op- 
posite side, " G. B." — either for Carter Braxton's father 
or for his brother George Braxton. 

From the Braxtons the estate passed, by purchase, to 
William Burnet Browne, of Salem, Massachusetts, who 
married Judith, daughter of Charles Carter, of " Cleve," 
King George County, Virginia, before the Revolution. 
Mr. Browne was the son of Honorable William Browne, 
of Salem, and his wife Mary Burnet, who was a daughter 




^fe^ 



ELSING GREEN, KING WILLIAM COUNTY 

of William Burnet, Governor of New York, and grand- 
daughter of the celebrated Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of 

° « 

20 For Captain William Dandridge and his descendants see 
William and Mary Quarterly, v, 30 et seq.; xii, 126 et seq. 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 



269 



Salisbury. Upon their removal to Virginia the Brownes 
filled Elsing Green with interesting ancestral relics. One 
room was hung with Gobelin tapestry presented to Bishop 
Burnet by William of Orange, and among the many por- 
traits was a fine one of the bishop himself. 

Formerly each of the wide fireplaces contained a back 
representing some episode in history. The only one of 
these now remaining shows the death of General Wolfe. 

As William Burnett Browne had no son he left Elsing 
Green to his grandson, William Burnet Claiborne, pro- 
vided he should take the name of Browne, which condition 
was complied with. 

The estate finally passed, by sale, from the Brownes to 
the Gregory family, which has owned it for several gen- 
erations. It is now the home of the family of Judge Roger 
Gregory. 




HORN QUARTER, KING WILLIAM COUNTY 



HORN QUARTER 

Stately Horn Quarter, the finest house of its period in 
King William County, was built in the early nineteenth 
century by Mr. George Taylor, a gentleman of large estate 



270 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

and son of the celebrated John Taylor (1750-1824), of 
Caroline County, United States senator from Virginia. 21 
The master of Horn Quarter also owned a handsome town 
home at the corner of Cary and Fifth Streets, in Richmond. 
He left Horn Quarter to his son, John Penn Taylor, who 
later sold it. 

MATTAPONY CHURCH 

Crossing the Mattapony River from King William 
County we find old Mattapony Church, one of the most 
striking of the Colonial houses of worship. Soon after 
the Revolution, the congregation became extinct and the 
church was abandoned. It suffered much from the ravages 




MATTAPONY CHURCH, KING AND QUEEN COUNTY 

of time and weather and finally, as there was no congrega- 
tion, no minister and no vestry, it was regarded as having 
escheated to the State and was patented as public land by 
Mr. Pollard of King and Queen County, who conveyed it 
to a Baptist congregation. Mr. Pollard, however, removed 

21 For Honorable John Taylor and his descendants see Hayden, 
Virginia Genealogies, pp. 682—683. 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 



271 



the handsome baptismal font and presented it to the 
Episcopal church in Hanover County. 

Mattapony is now and has been for many years the 
home of a large and prosperous Baptist congregation, and 
is kept in excellent repair. It is a cruciform building of 
Colonial glazed brick. 

HANOVER COURT HOUSE 

Above the old Counties of King William and King 
and Queen is Hanover,. 

According to a committee appointed to " define the 
boundary of Hanover County and establish a seat of jus- 




HANOVER COURT HOUSE 



tice," Hanover Court House was built upon the estate of 
Francis Meriwether in the year 1735. It is said to be a 
copy of the King William County Court House. The 
building's chief claim to distinction is that in it, in Decem- 
ber, 1763, Patrick Henry made his maiden oration — the 
famous speech in the controversy between the people and 
the clergy, popularly known as the " Parson's Cause." A 
decision of the court on a demurrer in favor of the claims 



272 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

of the clergy had left nothing undetermined but the 
amount of damages in the ease, which was pending. Soon 
after the opening of the court, the case was called. The 
following extract from Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry 
vividly describes what then happened: 

" The array before Mr. Henry's eyes was now most 
fearful. On the bench sat more than twenty clergymen, 
the most learned men in the Colony, and the most capable, 
as well as the severest critics before whom it was possible 
for him to have made his debut. The Court House was 
crowded with an overwhelming multitude, and surrounded 
with an immense and anxious throng, who not finding 
room to enter were endeavoring to listen without, in the 
deepest attention. But there was something still more 
disconcerting than all this ; for in the chair of the presiding 
magistrate sat no other person than his own father. Mr. 
Lyons opened the cause very briefly; in the way of argu- 
ment he did nothing more than explain to the jury that 
the decision upon the demurrer had put the act of 1758 
entirely out of the way, and left the law of 1748 as the 
only standard of the damages; he then concluded with a 
highly wrought eulogium on the benevolence of the clergy. 
And now came the first trial of Patrick Henry's strength. 
None had ever heard him speak, and curiosity was on 
tiptoe. He rose very awkwardly, and faltered much in 
his exordium. The people hung their heads at so unprom- 
ising a commencement; the clergy were observed to ex- 
change shy looks at each other; and his father is described 
as having almost sunk with confusion from his seat. But 
their feelings were of short duration, and soon gave place 
to others of a very different character. For now were 
those wonderful faculties which he possessed for the 
first time developed; and now was first witnessed that 
mysterious and almost supernatural transformation of 
appearance, which the fire of his own eloquence never failed 
to work in him. For as his mind rolled along, and began 
to glow from its own action, all the exuviae of the clown 
seemed to shed themselves spontaneously. His attitude, by 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 273 

degrees, became erect and lofty. The genius awakened all 
his features. His countenance shone with a nobleness and 
grandeur which it had never before exhibited. There was 
lightning in his eyes which seemed to rivet the spectator. 
His action became graceful, bold and commanding, and in 
the tones of his voice there was a peculiar charm, a magic 
of which any one who ever heard him will speak of as soon 
as he is named, but of which no one can give you any 
adequate description. They can only say that it struck 
upon the ear and upon the heart in a manner which lan- 
guage cannot tell. Add to all these his wonder-working 
fancy and the peculiar phraseology in which he clothed his 
images ; for he painted to the heart with a force that almost 
petrified it. In the language of those who heard him on this 
occasion, ' he made their hair to rise on end.' 

" It will not be difficult for any one who ever heard this 
extraordinary man to believe the whole account of this 
transaction, which is given by his surviving hearers; and 
from their account, the Court House of Hanover County 
must have exhibited, on this occasion, a scene as picturesque 
as has been ever witnessed in real life. They say that the 
people whose countenances had fallen as he rose had heard 
but very few sentences before they began to look up ; then 
to look at each other with surprise, as if doubting the evi- 
dence of their own senses; then attracted by some strong 
gesture, struck by some majestic attitude, fascinated by the 
spell of his eye, the charm of his emphasis, and the varied 
and commanding expression of his countenance, they could 
look away no more. In less than twenty minutes, they 
might be seen in every part of the house, on every bench, 
in every window, stooping forward from their stands, in 
death-like silence; their features fixed in amazement and 
awe; all their senses riveted and intent upon the speaker, 
as if to catch the last strain of some heavenly visitant. The 
mockery of the clergy was soon turned into alarm; their 
triumph into confusion and despair; and at one burst of 
his rapid and overwhelming invective, they fled from the 
bench in precipitation and terror. As for his father, such 

18 



274 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

was his surprise, such his amazement, such his rapture, that, 
forgetting where he was and the character he was filling, 
tears of ecstasy streamed down his cheeks, without the 
power or inclination to suppress them. 

" The jury seemed to have been so completely bewil- 
dered that they lost sight not only of the act of 1748, 
but that of 1758 also; for thoughtless even of the admitted 
right of the plaintiff, they had scarcely left the bar when 
they returned with a verdict of one penny damages. A 
motion was made for a new trial: but the Court, too, had 
now lost the equipoise of their judgment, and overruled 
the action by a unanimous vote. The verdict and judg- 
ment overruling the motion were followed by redoubled 
acclamations from within and without the house. The 
people, who had with difficulty kept their hands off the 
champion from the moment of closing his harangue, no 
sooner saw the fate of the cause finally sealed, than they 
seized him at the bar, and in spite of his own exertions, 
and the continued cry of ' Order ' from the Sheriff and 
Court, they bore him out of the Court House and raising 
him on their shoulders, carried him about the yard, in a 
kind of electioneering triumph." 

There have recently been placed upon the walls of this 
historic old court house tablets to the memory of the citizens 
of Hanover County who were killed during the War be- 
tween the States. 

HANOVER COURT HOUSE TAVERN 

The guest-house as well as the " hall of justice " of the 
historic little village of Hanover Court House has an in- 
teresting connection with Virginia's most famous orator. 
This quaint house was at one time kept by Patrick Henry's 
father-in-law, John Shelton, and when Mr. Shelton was 
away from home, Mr. Henry would obligingly take his 
place as " host." 

The Marquis de Chastellux in his Travels in North 
America, 1780 to 1782, gives a piquant account of a visit to 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 



275 



Hanover Tavern. He says, " We arrived before sunset 
and alighted before a tolerably handsome Inn; a very large 
saloon and a covered portico are destined to receive the 
Company who assemble every three months at the Court 
House either on private or public affairs. 

" The County of Hanover as well as that of New Kent 
have still reason to remember the passage of the English. 
Mr. Tilghman, our landlord, though he lamented his mis- 
fortune in having lodged and boarded Lord Cornwallis 
and his retinue without his Lordship's having made him the 




TAVERN AT HANOVER COURT HOUSE 

least recompense, could not yet help laughing at the fright 
which the unexpected arrival of Tarleton spread amongst 
a considerable number of gentlemen who had come to hear 
the news and were assembled in the Court House. A negro 
on horseback came full gallop to let them know that 
Tarleton was not above three miles off. The resolution 
of retreating was soon taken, but the alarm was so sudden 
and the confusion so great that every one mounted the first 
horse that he could find, so that few of those curious gentle- 
men returned upon their own horses." 



276 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 



HICKORY HILL 

The plantation known as " Hickory Hill," home of the 
late Williams Carter Wickham, Brigadier-General of Cav- 
alry, C. S. A., was originally an appanage to Shirley on 
the James, inherited by the General's mother (Anne) from 
her father, Robert Carter. John Carter, son of Robert 
(" King") Carter of Corotoman, purchased five hundred 
acres from John Littlepage by deed dated 2nd of March, 
1734, since which date the property has passed by descent 













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HICKORY HILL, HANOVER COUNTY 

or deeds of family settlement. The consideration as named 
in the deed of lease and release was the sum of five shillings 
lawful British money, yielding also yearly one ear of In- 
dian corn at the feast of St. Michael the Archangel. The 
holding was greatly increased in 1768 by John Carter's son 
Charles Carter, of Shirley. 

As narrated by the late Charles Carter Lee in his 
Virginia Georgics : 

Many remote estates supplied his purses, 

And Shirley food for his and his guests' horses. 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 277 

Upon the marriage of Miss Anne Carter to Williams 
Fanning Wickham ( son of the famous John Wickham of 
Richmond) she removed from Shirley to Richmond, and, 
the young couple wishing a summer home, her husband pur- 
chased from the heirs of Governor George W. Smith (lost 
in the burning of the Richmond Theatre) a tract of hill 
land, entirely surrounded by Mrs. Wickham' s property. 
The dwelling was built and the plantation establishment 
moved from the lowlands of the Pamunkey River to the 
more salubrious elevation of " Hickory Hill " in 1820. This 
mansion passed through the vicissitudes of war, was de- 
stroyed by fire in 1875, but was immediately rebuilt. 

The feature of the old home on which the eye loves to 
dwell is the old garden, " with its roses so fair and its tall 
stately trees," its violets — its arbors, avenues and terraces — 
the emerald of its broad stretches of grass, and its matchless 
box trees, now approaching their centenary and still grow- 
ing with youthful riot. 

The old home is peaceful now; but twice each year 
during the latter part of the Civil War both armies swept 
over it, and while it was spared horrors such as Belgium has 
experienced, yet, at the best, war is aptly described by 
General Sherman, and the fate of the family was the com- 
mon lot of all during that fearful period. Historic incidents 
occurred from time to time, as when J. E. B. Stuart left 
his column for a moment on his famous raid around McClel- 
lan to cheer a sorely stricken soldier at this home. General 
William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, desperately wounded and a 
prisoner, here bade farewell forever to his sweet wife and 
children, who succumbed from the shock of separation, and 
the old pleasaunce with its luxurious shrubbery afforded 
safe concealment for his brother, Captain Robert E. Lee, 
Jr., as narrated in his charming book of recollections of his 
father. Later on in the war the tide of actual conflict 
surged back and forth across the old garden, and the great 
box walk echoed to the shots of fighting men ; but through 



278 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

it all it still survives with its matchless charm of beauty and 
romance. 

Hickory Hill is now the home of Mr. Henry T. Wick- 
ham. 

OLD FORK CHURCH 

Old Fork Church, St. Martin's Parish, Hanover 
County, came by its present name from its situation at 
the forks of the Pamunkey River, as the two little streams, 
the North Anna and South Anna, were popularly called. 
Its massive walls of checkered brick work are built upon 
severely simple lines, but their plainness is relieved by the 
pillared porches, of harmonious proportions, which shade 
both the main door and the minister's door. 




I'ORK CHURCH, HANOVER COUNTY 



This church dates from 1735, and during its long life 
has been conspicuous for its pious influences and for the 
number of young men it has sent into the ministry. Many 
notables have bowed the knee within its walls, among them 
Patrick Henry and the fair Dolly Madison, each of whom 
attended " Old Fork " in their youth. The noted author 
Thomas Nelson Page, whose family have been among its 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 



279 



staunchest pillars for generations, was a regular member 
of this old church during his boyhood and early manhood. 

The parish owns a beautiful communion service bear- 
ing upon both paten and chalice this inscription: 

" For the use of the Church in St. Martins parish, in 
Hanover and Louisa Counties, Virginia, 1759." 

In the churchyard are many interesting tombs. 

OAKLAND 

Oakland, the home of the Nelsons and Pages in the 
" upper end " of Hanover County, Virginia, is located on 
land originally granted to Thomas Nelson, the first settler 
of that name in Eastern Virginia. He was the grandfather 




OAKLAND, HANOVER COUNTY 

of General Thomas Nelson, junior, Signer of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, Governor of Virginia, and Comman- 
der of her forces in the campaign which resulted in the sur- 
render at Yorktown. 

The Nelsons owned a tract of land of about ten thou- 
sand acres between the Little and New Found Rivers, in 
that portion of New Kent Comity which by legislative 



280 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

enactment in the year 1721 became Hanover, and it was to 
this tract that the Honorable William Nelson, who suc- 
ceeded Lord Botetourt at the latter's death in 1770 in the 
chief magistracy of the Colony, sent " my Lord Bote- 
tourt's " horses to be grazed. The Marquis de Chastellux 
has left in his Memoirs a charming account of the " post- 
Revolutionary " home of General Thomas Nelson which 
was located on a portion of this estate just a few miles from 
" Oakland " and where that interesting Frenchman visited 
in 1782. General Nelson died in 1789 at " Mont Air " (the 
home of his son Francis Nelson), which adjoined the 
" Oakland estate." 

The " Oakland house " was not built until 1812, becom- 
ing the home of Judith, the youngest of General Nelson's 
daughters, who married her cousin, Captain Thomas 
Nelson. The choice of " the site " is attributed to the near 
presence of a noble spring which is still — these hundred 
years later — the delight of those whose privilege it is to 
claim Oakland as " home." " Oakland " and " hospitality " 
are synonymous. 

From this " roof-tree " have gone into the world men 
and women celebrated in varied professions: the church, 
both at home and abroad, has doubtless been the greatest 
benefactor of this " blood "; statesmanship and diplomacy 
are not absent from the roll of achievements; while the pen 
and sword have been wielded by its scions with equal ability. 

In 1847 " the youngest of the daughters of the house " 
— Frances Nelson — married her kinsman John Page, who 
in later years became a gallant officer in the Confederate 
Army, where he ranked as major. 

In 1899 the original " Oakland house " was destroyed 
by fire, but was shortly afterwards replaced by a dwelling 
built on the same plan. 

Oakland is now the joint possession of Thomas Nel- 
son Page, Rosewell Page, Second Auditor of the State of 
Virginia, and Rev. Francis Page, the three sons of Major 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 



281 



John and Frances (Nelson) Page. Thomas Nelson Page, * 
widely known as a man of letters and now American Am- 
bassador to Italy, was born at Oakland and his " Two 
Little Confederates " were children of that house, while 
" Marse Chan " himself was not unfamiliar with the loved 
surroundings. In Balla, and other Virginia Stories — 
the work of the graceful pen of James Poyntz Nelson — 
another " child of the Oakland house," one also finds much 
of local color. 

SCOTCHTOWN 

The huge and interesting old house with the curious 
name of Scotchtown was for a time the home of Patrick 
Henry, who bought it in 1771 and was living in it when he 
was first elected governor of Virginia. He sold it six or 




SCOTCHTOWN, HANOVER COUNTY 

seven years later to Wilson Miles Gary. Afterward Scotch- 
town passed to the possession of John Payne, and was 
the girlhood home of Dolly Pavne, who became the wife 
of President James Madison. It is said that during the 
Revolution, Tarleton and his raiders rode their horses up 
the stone steps of Scotchtown and clattered through the 
wide hall. 



282 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

EDGEWOOD AND AIRWELL 

Edgewood, a sturdy old mansion of the Berkeleys, 
of Hanover County, was built by Doctor Carter Berkeley 22 
upon a part of Airwell, the estate of his father, Nelson 
Berkeley. 

A sketch of the builder of Edgewood, by a brother 
" M.D.," which appeared in the Southern Clinic, says: 
" After completing his classical studies Dr. Berkeley was 




EDGEWOOD, HANOVER COUNTY 

sent to Edinburgh, Scotland, for several years, taking his 
degree about 1793. His thesis, in Latin, comprising 52 
pages (De Cor pore Humano) , now lies before me." 

Upon his return to Virginia Doctor Berkeley began 
the practice of his profession from his father's home, but 
built Edgewood and took up his abode there at the time 
of his marriage to Catherine Spotswood Carter — a daugh- 
ter of Charles Carter, of Shirley, by his second wife, Anne 
Butler Moore. The house is, therefore, probably over a 
century old. 

22 Berkeley family: The Critic (Richmond, Va.), December 6, 
1890, etc. 




PARLOR AT EDGEWOOD 




DINING-ROOM AT EDGEWOOD 



THE YORK RIVER COUNTRY 



285 



By his marriage with " Kitty " Carter (as she was 
familiarly called) Doctor Berkeley had five children, 
whose descendants are scattered throughout the United 
States. Doctor Berkeley married a second time, Fanny, 
daughter of Governor John Page, and widow of Thomas 
Nelson, Jr., son of General Thomas Nelson, of Yorktown. 
Thomasia (one of the three children of Thomas and Fanny 
Nelson) was married at Edgewood to Bishop William 
Meade, as his second wife. Doctor Berkeley and his second 
wife, Fanny (Page) Nelson, were the parents of two 
children: Kitty (who became the wife of Lucius, son of 
General John Minor, of Hazel Hill, near Fredericksburg) , 
who inherited Edgewood, and Carter Nelson Berkeley. 
Mr. and Mrs. Minor continued to live at Edgewood until 
the end of both their lives. After a time Edgewood was 
sold to strangers, from whom it came again into possession 
of descendants of the Berkeley family by purchase. 

About 1886 Mrs. Mary E. Noland (a granddaughter 
of Nelson Berkeley II, of " Airwell," and great niece of 
Doctor Carter Berkeley) bought Edgewood, which upon 
her death became the property of Mr. Nelson Berkeley 
Noland. It is now owned by Mr. William C. Noland, of 
Richmond. 




NEW MARKET, HANOVER COUNTY 



286 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

" Airwell " was built some time before the Revolution- 
ary War by Nelson Berkeley (born 1733, died 1794), who 
moved hither from Middlesex County. 

Tradition has it that Tarleton, with some of his troopers, 
visited the house during that war, and Tarleton's own re- 
port shows that he passed through this neighborhood. 

Mrs. Berkeley, of " Airwell," the widow of the founder, 
was the " lady of dignity, firmness, and authority " men- 
tioned by Bishop Meade, who declined to deliver the com- 
munion silver in her keeping to the embassy that came to 
get it for the coffers of the county. By the stand she took, 
the church silver was preserved to the parish ( St. Martin's ) . 

It is still kept at Airwell by descendants of the spirited 
old lady, and still serves its sacred purpose in old " Fork 
Church." 

Airwell was gutted by fire in 1836; but the walls were 
re-roofed and the house restored for occupancy about 1845. 

During the War between the States it was visited by 
both Northern and Southern soldiers, and it contributed 
its full share toward the support of the latter, one of whom 
died and is buried there. 

The present owner is Mr. Fenton Noland, to whom it 
has come by direct descent. 

NEW MARKET AND BULLFIELD 

New Market was an old home of the Doswell family, 
long resident in Hanover. 

Better known was Bullfield, in the same county, the 
home of Major Thomas Doswell, who was for many years 
one of the most noted and successful turfmen of the State 
at a time when the leading supporters of " the sport of 
king's " were gentlemen. On the old race track at Bullfield 
many of Virginia's most noted race horses were trained. 



PART V 

The Rappahannock and Potomac 

THE counties along the Rappahannock and 
Potomac Rivers, from Chesapeake Bay to the 
head of tidewater, are closely connected his- 
torically and socially. In treating of houses and 
homes of note in this section those upon the south side of 
the Rappahannock will be taken up first. 

ROSEGILL 

Picturesque in the extreme is this old estate — and not 
only in its outward and visible form but as well in the in- 
ward and spiritual things. For generations the home of 
" Wormeley of Virginia " — scions of the house of " Hat- 
field," Yorkshire, England — ancient and honorable — Rose- 
gill is perhaps the least popularly known of Virginia's 
colonial estates. In the third decade of the seventeenth 
century Christopher and Ralph Wormeley " came out " 
to Virginia and founded their first home in York County, 
each becoming a member of that " Virginia House of 
Lords " — the governor's Council of State. In 1649, Ralph 
Wormeley patented a tract of land wonderfully situated 
on the Rappahannock River — in what is now Middlesex 
County, at that date Lancaster — removing thither, estab- 
lishing " Rosegill," "passing" in the year of our Lord 1651 
from this truly " earthly paradise " — we trust, to that one 
" not made with hands." Agatha (of the name and family 
of " Eltonhead of Eltonhead "), widow of the first Ralph 
Wormeley (who was her second husband), took unto her- 
self a third mate — the distinguished Sir Henry Chicheley, 
Knight, a cavalier officer, member of the Governor's Coun- 
cil in Virginia and deputy governor of the Colony — who 

287 



288 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

made Rosegill his home throughout the remainder of his 
days. 

Ralph Wormeley (1650-1700) , second of the name, son 
of Ralph and Agatha (Eltonhead) Wormeley, matricu- 
lated at Oriel College, Oxford, in 1665, and, completing his 
education, returned to Virginia, where the succeeding years 
of his life proved a veritable multiplication table of honors: 
burgess, member of the Council, secretary of State, trustee 
of William and Mary College, naval officer of the Rap- 
pahannock, president of the Council; " the most powerful 
man in Virginia," according to a contemporaneous report. 
From him descended a line — all Ralphs, with one excep- 
tion, all masters of Rosegill and in economic, social and 
political " estate " among the foremost men in Virginia. 

The beginning of the Revolutionary struggle found two 
of the family resident at Rosegill — Ralph Wormeley 
(1715-1790), fourth of the name, for twenty-two years a 
member of the House of Burgesses, and his son Ralph 
Wormeley (1744-1806), the fifth, educated at Eton and 
Cambridge, one of the greatest book-collectors in Virginia 
and one of the last appointees to the Council under the 
Royal government. These honorable gentlemen both 
sympathized with the mother country in the revolt of her 
children, but, wise in their generation, they did not offer 
active opposition to the " new order " forming around 
them. Their passive attitude did not, however, save them 
from great annoyance during the war. 

Ralph, the younger, in a letter to John Randolph 
Grymes, dated 4 April, 1776, expressed himself quite freely 
in " loyal terms " ; the letter was intercepted, and Worme- 
ley was ordered by resolution of the Virginia Convention to 
be confined to the county of Berkeley and that part of his 
father's estate which was in the county of Frederick, and not 
to depart the limits thereof, and to give bond for £20,000. 
For two years his movements were thus restricted. After 
his release he returned to Rosegill, where, in 1781, oh, irony 
of fate ! his estate was pillaged and he robbed, by the crew 




FOLLOWING THE HOUNDS 



Hi 




19 



ROSEGILL, MIDDLESEX COUNTY 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 291 

of a tory privateer, of thirty-six valuable slaves, silver 
plate, jewelry, watches and wearing apparel, some of the 
property, however, being later returned on application to 
General Leslie, the English officer then commanding at 
Portsmouth. 

The two Wormeleys, however, survived the war and 
lived to enjoy the friendship of the citizens of the new 
State, the younger Ralph serving several times as a mem- 
ber of the House of Delegates and in the Virginia Con- 
vention of 1788. Not long after his death, in 1806, Rosegill 
was sold and in the course of years, passing through va- 
rious ownerships, was some time since purchased by the 
late Senator Cochran of Pennsylvania, who restored the 
old mansion with the utmost care and good taste. 1 

The distant view of Rosegill given in the illustration 
(the only available one) hardly does justice. 

Encircled with wild roses and honeysuckle, this won- 
derful old Virginia homestead deserves its pretty romantic 
name. 

To wind up the long hill from the little village of Ur- 
banna, along a shady road, and to behold the fine old 
mansion away off from its double outer gates is to realize 
delightfully how well some Virginians planned and 
builded. 

Rosegill house sits square and imposing in thirty acres 
of lawn. On the left, as one enters the land gate, is the 
great kitchen, still glorying in its fireplace, crane, spiders 
and pot hooks. 

The "mansion house " is unique. From the land 
porch a square hall opens ; to the left of this are a sitting- 
room and a dining-room, both immense, to the right are 
the library and drawing-rooms, equally spacious. The 
dining-room is panelled in mahogany, the sitting-room as 
well as the library in oak, while the drawing-room is in 



1 For Wornieley Genealogy, see Hayden, Virginia Genealogies, 
and Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, viii, p. 179 
et seq.; xvi, p. 16 et seq., and xviii, p. 373 et seq. 



292 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

white. Parallel to these large apartments runs one splen- 
did hall, with a large door, and eight large windows with 
seat, opening to the square river porch. At either end of 
this very large hall are winding stairs. 

Above are five great chambers and another sweep of 
hall with windows overlooking the Rappahannock. 

In the attic is one great chamber with fourteen beds for 
bachelors. The lawn from the back hall runs to the Rap- 
pahannock, which is at this point five miles wide. The 
green walk from the house to the river is bordered with 
roses its whole length. 

BLANDFIELD 

For two generations before the founding of Blandfield, 
a commodious brick mansion situated on a large estate 
which stretched to the Rappahannock River, the Bever- 
leys 2 had been conspicuous in Virginia. Robert Beverley, 
the emigrant (who died in 1686), clerk of the House of 
Burgesses, and his sons Harry (surveyor, and commander 
of a sloop fitted out by Governor Spotswood to go in quest 
of pirates), Peter (speaker of the House of Burgesses, 
treasurer of the Colony and member of the Council ) , and 
Robert (the first native historian of Virginia), had given 
the name distinction. Colonel William Beverley {circa 
1698-1756), only child of Robert, the historian, and his 
wife Ursula, daughter of the first William Byrd, married 
Elizabeth, daughter of the Honorable Richard Bland 
(1665-1720), of Jordan's Point, on James River, and 
building for her a home in Essex County, named it Bland- 
field in her honor. 

Colonel Beverley was a man of note in his day. He was 
a member of his Majesty's Council, and as a patentee of 
the great " Beverley Manor Estate " in Augusta County 
was one of the principal agents in the settlement of the 
valley of Virginia. Dying soon after the middle of the 

2 Beverley family : Virginia Magazine of History and Biog- 
raphy, ii, 405-413 Tin, 47-52, 169-176, 261-271, 383-392. 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 295 

eighteenth century, he was succeeded as master of Bland- 
field by his son Robert, who, sympathizing with England 
during the Revolution, was disarmed by the Virginia au- 
thorities. He, in turn, was succeeded at Blandfield by a 
second Robert, from whom the estate passed to still a third 
of the name. Colonel Robert Beverley, of Avenel, Fauquier 
County. 

Blandfield is still in possession of the Beverley family 
and is now the home of one of the sons of Colonel Robert 
Beverley, of Avenel. 

VAUTER'S CHURCH 

Vauter's Church, St. Anne's Parish, Essex County, 
takes its name from the family on or near whose land it was 
built. A brick in its south wall bearing the date 1731 had 




VAUTER'S CHURCH, ESSEX COUNTY 



led to a belief that it was erected during that year, but it 
is likely the figures have reference to the year of some 
addition or repair, as there are abundant evidences of 
greater age. In an article published in the Southern 



296 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Churchman, February 2, 1907, P. S. Hunter, a member 
of the parish, gives the following interesting word-picture 
of this old church: 

" Of all the magnificent river views in Tidewater Vir- 
ginia, few excel that from the summit of Chimborazo Hill, 
in upper Essex County. Commanding on one side the long 
beautiful stretches of the beautiful Rappahannock, flowing 
through its fertile plains, it displays on the other, thickly- 
wooded uplands in ascending terraces of richly blended 
verdure. But the most prominent object in the foreground 
is old Vauter's Church, standing in its ancient grove of 
oak and walnut. It is approached by the ' Church Lane,' 
considerably elevated above the fields on either side, from 
the accumulation of soil washing down from the hills, and 
is bordered by dense hedges of growth so characteristic of 
the country, and in Spring so exquisitely fragrant with 
the bloom of the wild grape and eglantine. 

" The church is a brick building of cruciform shape, 
with its three high, sharp gables supporting a shingle roof, 
cut close to the edge of the wall. Its high and narrow 
windows' are guarded by heavy, solid wooden shutters. 

" The present chancel raised one step from the stone- 
paved aisles is furnished now with two modern stands or 
lecterns, for the service and sermon, but back against the 
wall there still stands the old reading desk and pulpit above 
it. . . . The pews are the same old box stalls with benches 
of uncompromising rigidity, and furnished with clanging 
doors which announce the retirement of the occupants ; but 
they have been cut down to nearly half of their former 
height. Formerly pews and pulpit were so high that both 
minister and congregation could enjoy deep seclusion. . . . 
To complete the description of the venerable building, 
there is only to be added that its walls are covered by the 
most luxuriant mantle of English ivy." 

GAYMOXT 

Gaymont was the beautiful home of John H. Bernard, 
who was a State Senator, and who married, in 1816, Jane 
Gay Robertson. The house, which is noted for its hand- 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 297 

some interior, received its name as a compliment to his 
wife. It is still owned by the family. 




THE HALL AT GAYMONT 



ORMESBY 

Ormesby, an estate not far from Gniney's Depot on 
the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad, was 
once the property of Anthony Thornton, of Stafford 
County, who married Winifred, daughter of Colonel Peter 
Presley, of Northumberland House, Northumberland 
County, and died in 1757. The Ormesby homestead is one 
of those interesting-looking, rambling frame houses which 
in the old Virginia fashion grew with the needs of the 
family that lived in it. It is said that Anthony Thornton I 
built the oldest part of the house in about 1715, and gave 
the plantation to his younger son, Anthony II, who was in 
turn succeeded by his son Colonel Anthony Thornton III, 
who as county lieutenant of Caroline commanded the 
militia of that county at the siege of Yorktown. Later 
Colonel Thornton sold Ormesby to his brother Thomas 
Griffin Thornton, and removed to Kentucky. 

Thomas Griffin Thornton was in his day one of the 



298 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

most famous fox-hunters in Virginia, and the old sporting 
magazines contain anecdotes illustrative of the great ex- 




ORMESBY, CAROLINE COUNTY 




HOUSE WHERE STONEWALL JACKSON DIED, FAIRFIELD. CAROLINE COUNTY 

cellence of his hounds. He finally sold Ormesby to his 
brother John, whose heirs still own it. 

Before removing to Ormesby, John Thornton had 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 299 

owned and lived at Fairfield near Guiney's. It was in 
an outbuilding known as " the office " at Fairfield that 
Stonewall Jackson died. 

NORTH GARDEN 

North Garden was built not long after the Revolution 
by Captain Harry Thornton, son of Anthony Thornton, 
of Ormesby. Captain Thornton was a gentleman devoted 
to racing and other sports, in consequence of which his 
estate became seriously involved. The line between Caro- 
line and Spottsylvania Counties runs through the North 




NORTH GARDEN, CAROLINE ANT) SPOTTSYLVANIA COUNTIES 

Garden yard, and the story goes that when the sheriff of 
either county would come to arrest him for debt, he would 
simply step over the line into the other county. One day 
the sheriffs of both counties came at the same time and the 
gay captain's life of freedom seemed doomed to be brought 
to a close. Appearing to give up all hope of escape he 
ordered his horse (which unknown to the sheriffs was a 
racing mare famous for speed) and rode quietly off be- 
tween his captors. After riding for a mile or so, he stopped, 
pretending to arrange a stirrup leather, while the sheriffs 



300 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

went ahead for a few yards; when wheeling his horse 
about, the captain raised his hat and with a polite " Gentle- 
men, I have the honor to wish you a very good day," gal- 
loped off at a speed which the sheriffs knew they could not 
equal, and so escaped. 

An old gentleman declares that he has often heard his 
father say that he had seen the wide hall of North Garden 
covered with blood and feathers, the result of a cock fight— 
a kind of sport then in favor with men of the highest social 
standing. 

Captain Thornton, who soon after his escapade removed 
to Kentucky, married Anne, daughter of John Fitzhugh, 
of Belair, Stafford County, and left several children, one of 
whom was the mother of the late Judge E. H. Fitzhugh, 
of Richmond. 

North Garden was afterward bought by Mr. Thomas 
Catlett, after the death of whose son Edward Catlett the 
estate was sold. 




MARYE HOUSE, FREDERICKSBURG 

OLD HOUSES IN FREDERICKSBURG 

Fredericksburg contains many interesting old houses, 
among them the frame cottage in which Mary, the mother 
of Washington, spent so many years of her life, and where 




MARY WASHINGTON HOUSE, FREDERICKSBURG 




RISING SUN TAVERN, FREDERICKSBURG 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 303 

she died. It is now owned by the Association for the Pres- 
ervation of Virginia Antiquities, which organization has 
also lately purchased in the same town the Rising Sun 
Tavern, a famous old Colonial hostelry. 

A house believed to be the one in which William Paul, 
the brother of John Paul Jones, lived and the home of John 
Paul Jones himself during his residence in Fredericksburg 
is pointed out. 

On the heights above the town stands the well-known 
Marye House which figured conspicuously in the Battle 
of Fredericksburg. 




KENMORE, FREDERICKSBURG 

KENMORE 

In the suburbs of Fredericksburg is Kenmore, built by 
Colonel Fielding Lewis (1725-1781 ) , 3 who married Eliza- 
beth (familiarly known as "Betty"), sister of George 
Washington. 

3 For the descendants of John and Frances (Fielding) Lewis, 
see William and Mary Quarterly, ix, 261 e t seq. 



304 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Colonel Lewis, who was the son of Honorable John 
Lewis III (1702-1754) of Warner Hall, Gloucester 
County, and Frances Fielding, was a man of prominence 
in his day and during the Revolution conducted for the 
State a manufactory of arms, at Fredericksburg. His son 
Lawrence married the beautiful " Nelly " Custis. 




THE PARLOR AT KENMORE 

Later, Kenmore was owned for many years by the well- 
known family of Gordon. It was, until her death, the 
property and home of Mrs. William Key Howard. 

Kenmore is especially noted for the beautiful orna- 
mental plaster work on the ceilings of some of its rooms, 
said to have been the work of Hessian prisoners during 
the Revolution. 

MANNSFIELD 

A short distance below Fredericksburg, on the south 
side of the Rappahannock, may be seen some ruined walls 
which are all that remains of Mannsfield, originally the 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 305 

home of Mann Page (a member of the Continental Con- 
gress) and afterward the property of the Bernard family. 4 
This fine old house was destroyed by the fire of Federal 
guns during the great battle. 

THE FALLS AND FALL HILL 

Francis Thornton ( 1681-post 1738) , grandson of Wil- 
liam Thornton of Gloucester County, first of the family in 
Virginia, settled in 1702, at Snow Creek, then in Essex, 




THE FALLS, NEAR FREDERICKSBURG 

now Caroline Comity, to the east of the present Fredericks- 
burg, and at that date the very " outpost " on the Rappa- 
hannock River. Thornton was a large land owner, a 
representative for Caroline, in the House of Burgesses, in 
1723 and 1736, and an early explorer of the Piedmont sec- 
tion. Thornton River is named for him. He built the 
quaint old home known as " The Falls," about a mile west 
of Fredericksburg. The house at " Fall Hill," which com- 
mands one of the most magnificent views in the Rappa- 

4 Bernard 
181-187. 

20 



family: William and Mary Quarterly, v, 62-64% 



306 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

hannock Valley, was erected some years later. The ex- 
tensive estate, which included both " The Falls " and " Fall 
Hill," was inherited by Francis Thornton (1714-1749), 
son of the old settler, who represented Spottsylvania 
County in the House of Burgesses 1744-1754, and mar- 
ried Frances, daughter of Roger and Mildred (Washing- 
ton) Gregory. Another Francis Thornton (who died in 
1795), son of Francis and Frances (Gregory) Thornton, 
succeeded to the estate, on the death of his father, and 




FALL HILL 



marrying Anne, daughter of the Rev. John Thompson and 
his wife, Butler Brayne (widow of Governor Alexander 
Spotswood) , became the father of Francis Thornton (born 
1760), who married Sally, daughter of the celebrated 
Judge Harry Innes, of Virginia and Kentucky. To 
Francis and* Sally (Innes) Thornton were born four 
daughters, three of whom in after-years became — Mrs. 
J. H. Fitzgerald, Mrs. Murray Forbes, Mrs. Thomas 
Marshall; the fourth, Miss Butler Brayne, dying un- 
married; and four sons: Francis Thornton, a minister; 
Harry Innes Thornton, of the Supreme Court of Alabama, 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 307 

and the Court of Claims of San Francisco; James Innes 
Thornton, Secretary of State for Alabama, and Robert 
Calloway Thornton, who died unmarried. 

At " The Falls," which has long since passed out of the 
Thornton family, are the tombs of many generations of 
the house. " Fall Hill " is still a family possession and is 
now owned by Mrs. Frederick Robinson, of Transvaal, 
South Africa. 

At " Fall Hill" is an interesting old grave: that of 
Katrina, an Indian, who was the nurse of Francis Thorn- 
ton, the fourth of the name mentioned above. This Francis 
Thornton frequently told his little grandchildren of how 
the Indian maid covered him with leaves and hid herself 
among them and called the partridges around and some- 
times caught them in this way. The Indians came to see 
him when passing through the country and he always spoke 
of them as his friends. 

General Lee was a frequent visitor at " Fall Hill," 
and at one time, in the thick of the firing which he was 
watching from this place, he is said to have turned his 
glasses from the battlefield to Chatham, across the river, 
to see if the apple tree, under which he courted his wife, 
was still standing. Shortly after the war, General Lee, 
while on a visit to " Fall Hill," advised Mrs. Taylor (whose 
mother was Sally Innes Thornton, wife of Murray Forbes) 
to obliterate every trace of the war, she having preserved, 
as an historic landmark, the trunk of a large tree, on the 
lawn ( then covered with ivy ) , the top of which had been 
torn away by a cannon ball from the enemy on the Stafford 
side. 

ROXBURY 

The Roxbury estate in Spottsylvania County, between 
the Ta and Po Rivers, originally consisted of 1500 acres, 
but was reduced after the War between the States to 1100. 
It is believed to have been patented by Captain Harry 
Beverley, son of Major Robert Beverley, clerk of the 
House of Burgesses, and to have been inherited by his 



308 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

grandson, Beverley Stanard (1721-1765), who was ap- 
pointed a justice of Middlesex County in 1742, removed 
to Spottsylvania County and built the present house at 
Roxbury about 1745."' His tomb may still be seen in the 
graveyard there. He left Roxbury and Stanardsville (an 
estate of 5200 acres in what was then Orange but is now 
Greene County) to his eldest son William Stanard, who 
was an officer of minute men at the beginning of the Revo- 
lution, and was sheriff of Spottsylvania, 1802-1804. 




ROXBURY, SPOTTSYLVANIA COUNTY 

William Stanard married Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel 
Edward Carter, of Blenheim, Albemarle, and had many 
children. 

After William Stanard's death, in October, 1809, his 
heirs sold Roxbury to his nephew, Robert Stanard, who 
was speaker of the House of Delegates and judge of the 
Court of Appeals. Judge Stanard's father was Larkin 
Stanard, of Stanfield, Spottsylvania ( a cadet in the Revo- 
lution and a member of the House of Delegates, 1798- 
1803) , and one of his brothers was Captain Beverley Chew 
Stanard (captain in the War of 1812 and member of the 

5 Stanard family: Hayden, Virginia Genealogies, p. 279. 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 309 

House of Delegates for Chesterfield, 1805-1811), whose 
son John Champe Stanard, of Richmond, occupied Rox- 
bury for many years. 

After Judge Stanard' s death, May 14, 1846, Roxbury 
was inherited by his son Robert C. Stanard, long a prom- 
inent lawyer of Richmond, and a member of the State 
Senate, and of the Convention of 1851. From him it de- 
scended to his only son Hugh Mercer Stanard, Captain 
in the Confederate Army on General Magruder's staff. 
After Captain Stanard's death it became the property of 
his mother, Mrs. Martha Stanard, who some years later 
sold it to her brother, Mr. Pierce. It has since again been 
sold. The estate was the property of the Stanard family 
for about one hundred and fifty years. 

The house, which is believed to be the oldest residence in 
Spottsylvania County, is a well-preserved frame building, 
and the parlor, wainscoted to the ceiling, is a handsome 
example of the work of that early day. 

Having ascended the south bank of the Rappahannock 
to Spottsylvania County, we now return to the Chesapeake 
Bay, in Northumberland County. 

DITCHLEY 

Ditchley looks upon the Chesapeake Bav. About the 
year 1647 Colonel Richard Lee, the first of the famous Lee 
family in Virginia, settled on a plantation at Dividing 
Creek, Northumberland County, which he named Ditchley. 
He was succeeded there by his seventh son Hancock Lee 
(1653-1709), a prominent man in his day, whose first 
wife was Mary, daughter of the Honorable William 
Kendall, of " the Eastern Shore," and his second, Eliza- 
beth, daughter of the " converted " Puritan, Isaac Aller- 
ton II, and granddaughter of those stern New England 
worthies the first Isaac Allerton and " Elder " William 
Brewster. Hancock Lee was buried at Ditchley, where 
his tomb may still be seen. 

The original Ditchley house is said to have dated from 
about 1687, but the present homestead, situated about two 



310 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

hundred yards from the site of its predecessor, was built 
by Kendall Lee, grandson of Hancock Lee, about the year 
1765. 

Ditchlev remained in the Lee family until 1789, when 
William Lee sold it to James Ball, Jr. (1718-1789), who 
had married said Lee's aunt, Lettice Lee (1731-1811 ) , and 




DITCHLEY, NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY 

it has ever since been the property of the well-known family 
of Ball. A recent owner was Captain James F. Ball, a 
gallant officer in the Confederate Army. 

There is still in use at Wycomoco Church, Northumber- 
land Parish, a communion cup bearing the inscription, " Ex 
Dono Hancock Lee to Ye Parish of Lee, 1711." 

MANTUA 

Probably no house in Tidewater, Virginia, has such a 
site as Mantua, Northumberland County. Standing on a 
commanding hill, with the Coan River and the broad Coan 
Inlet almost beneath it, the view includes this beautiful 
sheet of water on one side and beyond the wide Potomac, 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 311 

here nearly at its mouth. To the right of the Coan, fertile 
fields and fruitful orchards, interspersed with woodlands, 
stretch to the great river. To one who has seen this view 
in early summer, its memory comes back as a thing of un- 
usual beauty. 

James Smith, who was born in the County of Deny, 




MANTUA, NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY 



Ireland, emigrated to America and acquired a large for- 
tune, in business, in Baltimore. Later, he bought several 
thousand acres in Northumberland County, Virginia (in- 
cluding the old Northumberland House estate, which was 
for a large part of two centuries the home of the notable 
family of Presley, now extinct) , and built the present hand- 
some house. At his death, in 1832, the estate was inherited 
by his son, Col. James M. Smith, who married Sarah, 
daughter of Willoughby Newton, of Lee Hall, Westmore- 
land County. At Col. Smith's death, the property was 
divided among his children, whose heirs are represented in 
the names of Brockenbrough, Hall, Barron, Lamb, and 
Howard. 

Mantua with several hundred acres has for a number of 



312 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

years been the property of Hon. Wm. A. Jones, of War- 
saw, Va., who for so many years has been member of Con- 
gress for the " Northern Neck district." 

BEWDLEY 

Bewdley, in Lancaster County, is one of the most un- 
usual looking houses in Virginia. It is a frame building 
with four great chimneys, two at each end, towering above 
it, and from its high, shingled roof two rows of dormer 
windows, like so many heavily-lidded eyes, look out. The 
exact date when the house was built is not known, but the 
estate has been owned by a branch of the Ball family for 
two hundred years, and perhaps longer. It is first men- 
tioned as the home of Major James Ball (1678-1754), a 
grandson of the first of the Ball family in Virginia, and 
a first cousin of Mary Ball, the mother of Washington. 

Major Ball was succeeded at Bewdley by his son 
Colonel James Ball (1718-1789), who was many years a 
member of the Virginia House of Delegates and also a 
member of the Convention of 1788. His son and heir, 
Colonel James Ball (1755-1825), of Bewdley, was like- 
wise frequently in the House of Delegates. Among the 
sons of this last named Colonel Ball was William Lee Ball, 
for several terms a member of Congress. 

A recent owner of Bewdley was Captain James Ken- 
dall Ball, of the 9th Virginia Cavalry, Confederate States 
Army. 

EPPING FOREST 

Epping Forest is historic as the birthplace of Mary 
Ball (1707/8-1789), the mother of Washington. Her 
father, Colonel Joseph Ball (who was born in England, 
May 24, 1649), died at Epping Forest in 1711. As he 
left the plantation to his wife for life it is probable that 
after her death it became the property of his only son, 
Joseph Ball, who removed to England, where he was a 
bachelor of Grey's Inn, and died in London, 1762. 

6 Ball family : Hayden, Virginia Genealogies, p. 45 et seq^. 




BEWDLEY, LANCASTER COUNTY 




EPPING FOREST, LANCASTER COUNTY 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 315 

TOWLES POINT 

Towles Point, in Lancaster County, is not only one of 
the oldest houses in Virginia, but is remarkable for having 
continued for more than two hundred years in the posses- 
sion of one family. Henry Towles, Jr., removed from the 
Eastern Shore of Virginia in 1711, and built the house at 
Towles Point. He married Anne Therett and, dying in 
1734, was succeeded by his son Stokeley Towles, who mar- 
ried Catherine Martin and had (besides Colonel Thomas 
Towles and Major Stokeley Towles, each of whom was a 




TOWLES POINT, LANCASTER COUNTY 

militia officer during the Revolution) a son, Colonel Henry 
Towles (1738-1799), who succeeded his father at Towles 
Point. Henry Towles, who was a colonel of militia 
during the Revolution, and County Lieutenant of Lan- 
caster, in 1794, married, in 1760, Judith Haynes. Colonel 
Towles had eight children and at his death the estate was 
sold for division, but was bought by his daughter, Frances, 
who had married her cousin Porteus Towles (1777-1821) . 
Porteus and Frances Towles were succeeded at Towles 
Point by their son, William Henry Towles (1803-1836), 
who married Keturah, widow of Thomas Towles. At the 



316 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

death of W. H. Towles the old home again passed by in- 
heritance to his son James Towles (1829-1893$ who mar- 
ried Josephine Isabella Whittington, and. left a number 
of children, one of whom, Howard MeJ&ton Towles, a 
prominent lawyer of Baltimore, is -the present owner<^6f 
Towles Point. 7 ' 

CHRIST CHURCH, LANCASTER 

One of the best examples of Colonial church archi- 
tecture in Virginia is Christ Church, Lancaster County, 
built in 1732, to replace an earlier structure. The parish 
is an old one, dating, under various names, from about 
1652. 

Robert Carter, of Corotoman, generally known, on 
account of his estate and wealth, as " King Carter," offered 
to build the church at his own expense, provided it should 
be placed upon the site of the older sanctuary and, to quote 
his will, " Provided always the chancel be preserved as a 
burial place for my family, as the present chancel is, and 
that there be preserved for my family a commodious pew 
in the chancel." 

The vestry book shows that Colonel Carter did bear 
the whole expense of this handsome building, reserving one- 
fourth of its seating capacity for his servants and tenants, 
besides a very large pew near the chancel-rail for his own 
family. 

Three miles away on the broad Rappahannock, near 
its mouth, stood the Carter home, Corotoman, in the midst 
of its great plantation of 8000 acres. From his home to 
his church " King Carter " built a splendid road drained 
by deep ditches and walled on each side by a hedge of 
goodly cedars. Along this avenue the Corotoman coach 
rolled on Sundays, and tradition says that the rest of the 
congregation waited in the churchyard until its arrival, 

7 Towles Family, Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 
viii, 320-321, 428-429, and ix, 198-200, 324-326, 433-435. 




CHRIST CHURCH, LANCASTER COUNTY 




INTERIOR CHRIST CHURCH 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 319 

when they followed the hewigged and beruffled " King " 
into church. 

Christ Church is the only Colonial house of worship in 
Virginia that has never been altered, and it stands to-day 
as characteristic of its time, as strong and as impressive as 
when the Carters enjoyed the seclusion of its high-backed 
pews that screened them from all eyes except those of the 
preacher in a pulpit so lofty that it seemed to Bishop Meade 
when standing in it to be " hung in the air." The church 
is in the form of a cross. Its walls of checkered brick- work 
are three feet thick, and into them are deeply set large 
windows with many little square panes. The ceiling, with 
its beautiful groined arches, is thirty-three feet from the 
floor at the highest point above the intersection of its stone- 
paved aisles. The walls are panelled with black walnut as 
high as the tops of the pew-backs, above which they are 
covered with white plaster, which still looks as smooth and 
as solid as rock. The great square pews, with seats running 
all around them (some of them capable of holding twenty 
persons, and all as many as twelve), the pulpit, with its 
pretty winding stair and quaint sounding-board, the clerk's 
desk, the carved chancel-rail and massive communion table, 
are also of walnut. 

k King " Carter's father, Colonel John Carter, the 
founder of the Virginia family, had been buried in the 
chancel of the earlier church; but the rest of the Carters 
sleep outside beneath splendid, but dilapidated marbles, 
bearing fragments of elaborate coats-of-arms and long 
inscriptions. 

Bishop Meade, writing of a service held by him in 
Christ Church in 1838, says, " Peculiarly delightful it was 
to raise the voice in a house whose sacred form and beautiful 
arches seemed to give force and music to the feeblest tongue 
beyond any other building in which I ever performed or 
heard the hallowed services of the sanctuary." 

Through the assistance of the Association for the Pres- 
ervation of Virginia Antiquities, and other friends of this 
most interesting old church, it has of late years been re- 



320 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

shingled, broken panes of glass in the windows have been 
replaced and other repairs made. 

On account of its inaccessibility to most members of the 
parish at the present day, it has only been used for occa- 
sional services for a long time past. 

ST. MARY'S WHITE CHAPEL 

Just when St. Mary's White Chapel, in Lancaster 
County, was built is not known, but dates on the com- 
munion plate and tombstones suggest that it was about 




ST. MARYS WHITE CHAPEL, LANCASTER COUNTY 

the middle of the seventeenth century. It is a glazed brick 
building and was originally in the form of a cross, with 
three galleries, one of them owned by Major James Ball 
and Mr. Joseph Ball, one by the Downman family, while 
the third was reserved for colored servants whose masters 
were members of the parish. 

In 1739 the church was badly out of repair and the 
congregation pulled down the arms of the cross and re- 
paired and restored the rest of the building. This left a 
structure, sixty feet long and thirty broad, with an arched 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 321 

ceiling. Later still the high pews and pulpit were cut 
down. 

St. Mary's White Chapel still possesses a silver chalice 
inscribed, " The gift of David Fox, 1669," and a silver 
paten believed to have been given by George Spencer, in 
1691. David Fox also gave the church, in 1702, two tablets 
bearing the Ten Commandments, and the will of his son, 
Captain William Fox, under date 1717, contained the fol- 
lowing direction, " My wife shall send for the Lord's 
Prayer and Creed, well drawn in gold letters, and my name 
under each of them, set in decent black frames, as a gift to 
St. Mary's White Chapel." All four of the tablets are of 
massive black walnut with hand carved letters heavily 
gilded with gold-leaf. The marble font is also a bequest 
of William Fox. Another interesting possession is a Bible 
given by Raleigh Downman. 

St. Mary's White Chapel was the church of the Balls, 
Washington's ancestors on his mother's side, and in the 
churchyard most of the oldest tombs bear the name of Ball. 
The old communion table in the chancel once had a cover of 
green velvet with gold fringe and in the centre the Ball 
coat-of-arms heavily embossed in gold. 

NOMINI HALL 

All that now remains of Nomini Hall, the once noted 
seat of the Carters in Westmoreland County, is an avenue 
of poplars. 

The estate, which contains several thousand acres, was 
the home of Robert Carter, called, from his membership 
in the Council of State, " Councillor Carter." He was a 
grandson of Robert ("King") Carter (1663-1732). 

The spacious brick mansion which once graced the 
Nomini Hall plantation, and the family that lived in it, 
have been made widely known by the publication of the 
sprightly diary of Philip Vickers Fithian, a tutor in the 
Carter family during the years just preceding the Revo- 
lution. 

21 



322 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Part of the original estate, with a modern house, is 
now owned and occupied by some of Councillor Carter's 
descendants, the Arnest family. 

BLADENSFIELD 

The farm near Warsaw, Richmond County, on which 
this quaint old house stands was once part of the great 
estate of Robert (" King ") Carter. In 1733, on the divi- 
sion of part of his property, it was assigned to his grandson, 
Robert Carter of Nomini. This gentleman, or his wife, 
most probably (who was Frances, daughter of Benjamin 




BLADENSFIELD. RICHMOND COUNTY 



Tasker, President of the Council of Maryland, and his wife 
Anne Bladen), gave to the place the present name. In 
January, 1790, Mr. Carter conveyed Bladensfield to his 
son-in-law, John Peck, whose heirs, in 1842, sold it to 
Reverend William Norvell Ward, whose family has since 
owned it. Well founded tradition states that the home was 
once occupied by Nathaniel Rochester, a native of West- 
moreland County, Virginia, who was a colonel in the Con- 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 323 

tinental Army and for whom the city of Rochester, X. Y., 

was named. Bladensfield is believed to have been built 
early in the eighteenth century. 

KIRNAN 

Kirnan, in the upper part of Westmoreland County, 
was originally known as " China Hall." The Reverend 
Archibald Campbell, an uncle of the English poet Thomas 
Campbell, bought it before the Revolution and changed 
its name to Kirnan in honor of his ancestral home in Scot- 




KIRNAX, WESTMORELAND COUNTY 



land. Mr. Campbell was the rector of Washington Parish, 
Westmoreland, for years before the Revolution and also 
taught a school at Kirnan which tradition says was attended 
by Presidents Washington and Monroe. 

Several of Parson Campbell's sons were prominent 
lawyers, one of them being the first United States district 
attorney. One of his grandsons, Ferdinand Stuart Camp- 
bell, a distinguished professor at William and Mary Col- 



324 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

lege, took the name of Stuart upon inheriting a Scottish 
estate. 

In later days Kirnan became the home of the Bowie 
family. 

STRATFORD 

In an out of the way corner of Westmoreland County, 
in the midst of a vast and wooded estate, on a high bluff 
of the Potomac River, and approached from the landward 
by a narrow, lonely, and densely shaded road, stands Strat- 
ford, the sturdy castle of the sturdy race of Lee of Virginia. 

From the landing of their first ancestor upon American 
shores, about 1640, until the present day, these Lees have 
never lacked sons to render service to their country and to 
make their name illustrious. Founded in Virginia by a 
gentleman of worth and estate who held some of the highest 
offices in the Colonial government, this family has given 
to Virginia one governor, four members of the Council of 
State, and twelve members of the House of Burgesses; to 
the colony of Maryland two councillors and three members 
of the Assembly; to the American Revolution four mem- 
bers of the Convention of 1776 which organized the State 
of Virginia, two signers of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, and their three other eminent brothers, Thomas Lud- 
well, William and Arthur Lee; and the foremost cavalry 
officer of the Revolutionary War, " Light Horse Harry " 
Lee. To the civil service of the United States the family 
has furnished one attorney general and several members of 
Congress, and to the State of Virginia, two governors ; to 
the State of Maryland, a governor, and to the Confederate 
States, the great commander of its armies, three major 
generals and one brigadier general. Later, during the 
troubles which culminated in the war with Spain, General 
Fitzhugh Lee gained added distinction as consul general 
to Cuba and as a major general of the United States Army. 

Part of the Stratford estate was patented by Richard 
Lee, the emigrant, and was inherited by his son John, who 
took his " bachelor's " degree in 1662 at Oxford, where his 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 325 

memory is perpetuated by a silver cup bearing the Lee 
arms and an inscription, given by him to Queens College. 
This John Lee seems to have been a merry bachelor, as 
there is on record in Westmoreland County an agreement 
made in 1070, between him and his neighbors, Thomas 
Gerrard and Isaac Allerton, to build a banqueting hall at a 
point where their estates met, where annually each in turn 
should " make an honorable treatment." After John Lee's 
death, in 1073, Stratford passed to his brother, Colonel 
Richard Lee (1047-1714), of the Council, who, however, 
made his abode at Mt. Pleasant, also in Westmoreland 
County. The first mansion at Stratford was built by 
Thomas Lee (1090-1750), a younger son of this Richard, 
but it was soon afterward burned by convict servants, 
whom Mr. Lee, sitting as magistrate, had sentenced to be 
punished for some offence. A contemporaneous issue of 
The Maryland Gazette says, " Last Wednesday night 
Colonel Thomas Lee's fine house in Virginia was burnt, 
his office, barns and outhouses, his plate, cash (to the sum 
of £10,000 ) , papers and everything entirely lost. His lady 
and child were forced to be thrown out of a window, and 
he himself hardly escaped the flames, being much scorched. 
A white girl about twelve years old, a servant, perished in 
the fire. It is said that Colonel Lee's loss is not less than 
£50,000." The fire occurred in 1729. 

Public records in the Virginia State Capitol show that 
the English government gave Colonel Lee £300 sterling 
as a reward for loss incurred from faithfulness to duty. 
Soon after the fire Colonel Lee built the present Stratford 
house. 

The builder of Stratford was a man of great promi- 
nence in his day and as president of the Council was act- 
ing governor of the colony from September 5, 1749, until 
his death, on November 14, 1750. He, like his famous son 
Richard Henry, was buried in the old family burying- 
ground at Mt. Pleasant. Perhaps no Virginian parents 
have had a greater number of distinguished sons than 
Colonel Thomas Lee and his wife Hannah, daughter of 



326 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Honorable Philip Ludwell II. Two of them, Richard 
Henry (1732-1794) and Francis Lightfoot (1734-1797), 
were signers of the Declaration of Independence ; two oth- 
ers, William (1739-1795) and Arthur (1740-1792), ren- 
dered distinguished service for their country abroad during 
the Revolution ; the fourth son, Thomas I Aid well Lee (1730- 
1778), held a conspicuous place as a patriot and lawyer, 
but died in 1778, and Philip Ludwell Lee (1726/7-1775), 
the eldest son, was a member of the Council of State of 
Virginia. 

Honorable Philip Ludwell Lee at his death, in 1775, 
left two daughters, who eventually became his co-heiresses. 
The elder, Matilda, became the wife of her cousin Henry 
(1756-1818), the dashing " Light Horse Harry " Lee of 
Revolutionary fame. She died in 1790, but as she left 
several children, her husband continued to make his home 
at Stratford. Upon June 18, 1793, he married, as his 
second wife, Anne Hill Carter, of Shirley, and upon Janu- 
ary 19, 1807, their immortal son, Robert Edward Lee, in 
whom the ancient dream of a spotless as well as valorous 
knight came true, was born at Stratford, and in the same 
room in which his famous kinsmen, Richard Henry and 
Francis Lightfoot Lee, had first seen the light. The room 
is that to the right of the entrance, as one looks at the 
picture. 

After the death of " Light Horse Harry " Lee, Strat- 
ford passed to his son by his first marriage, Major Henry 
Lee, a man of brilliant talent, who died in Paris in 1837. 
After his death the estate passed from the family and is 
now the home and property of Dr. Stuart. 

Stratford house consists of two wings thirty feet wide 
by sixty deep, connected by a " great hall " of twenty-five 
by thirty feet, which gives the mansion the form of the 
letter H. The ceiling of this hall is lofty and dome-shaped, 
and its walls are panelled in oak, with built-in bookcases 
of the same wood between the doors which lead into the 
wings. At the ends are doors, flanked on either side by 
large windows, leading into the grounds and garden. It is 




^RATFORD, WESTMORELAND COUNTY 




SABINE HALL, RICHMOND COUNTY 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 329 

thus well lighted and airy and in the old days was used as 
library and living-room. 

Topping the pointed roof of each wing is a cluster of 
four tall, square chimneys, joined by arches, each cluster 
having much the effect of a square turret. This unique 
arrangement of the chimneys makes possible an interesting 
feature of one of the wings, which is known as the secret 
chamber. A small room is hidden in the stack of chimneys, 
the four of which form its walls. For many years it was 
so secret, indeed, that its existence was not so much as 
suspected, and it was only discovered when a carpenter in 
taking some lumber from the garret accidentally disturbed 
a plank which concealed its entrance. The room is entered 
from above, by means of this plank, which is made to slide 
backward and forward under the floor, fastening on the 
inner side by a spring, thus forming a sort of trap-door. 
It is about eight feet square and ten deep, and bears evi- 
dent marks of use, the walls being disfigured in several 
places by smoke of a lamp or candle and the floor spotted 
with grease or ink. 

In the grounds at a distance of some fifty or sixty feet 
from the four corners of the mansion were four outhouses, 
storehouses, office and kitchen. A fair-sized ox could be 
roasted in the kitchen's great fireplace, which is twelve feet 
wide, six high and five deep. 

In the year 1790, Thomas Lee Shippen, of Philadel- 
phia, a grandson of Colonel Thomas Lee, the builder of 
Stratford, visited the place and wrote the following de- 
scription of it to his father: " Stratford, the seat of my 
forefathers, is a place of which too much cannot be said: 
whether you consider the venerable magnificence of its 
buildings, the happy disposition of its grounds or the ex- 
tent and variety of its prospects. Stratford, whose de- 
lightful shades formed the comfort and retirement of my 
wise and philosophical grandfather, with what mixture of 
awe and pious gratification did I explore and admire your 
beauties. What a delightful occupation did it afford me 
sitting on one of the sofas of the great hall to trace the 



330 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

family resemblance in the portraits of all of my dear 
mother's forefathers, her father and mother, her grand- 
father and grandmother, and so on upward for four gen- 
erations. Their pictures, drawn by the most eminent artists 
of England and in large gilt frames, adorn one of the most 
spacious and beautiful halls I have ever seen. There is 
something truly noble in my grandfather's picture. He 
is dressed in a large wig, flowing from his shoulders (prob- 
ably his official wig as President of the Council), and a 
loose gown of crimson satin, richly ornamented. I men- 
tion the dress as it may serve to convey to you some idea of 
the style of the picture. But it is his physiognomy that 
strikes you with emotion. A blend of goodness and great- 
ness; a sweet yet penetrating eye, a finely marked set of 
features and a heavenly countenance. Such I have almost 
never seen. Do not think me extravagant. My feelings 
were certainly so as I dwelt with rapture on the portraits 
of Stratford, and felt so strong an inclination to kneel to 
that of my grandfather. It was with difficulty that my 
uncle who accompanied me could persuade me to leave the 
hall to look at the gardens, vineyards, orangeries and lawns 
which surround the house." 8 

YEOCOMICO CHURCH 

One of the most picturesque of Virginia's old churches 
is in Cople Parish, Westmoreland County. This is 
Yeocomico, which bears the Indian name of a little river 
not far away. Cople Parish originally contained two 
Colonial churches some distance apart, Yeocomico and 
Nomini, also named for the river, or creek, near which it 
stands. Nomini was destroyed by fire some years after 
the Revolution, but was later rebuilt. 

Yeocomico, cloistered in a grove of ancient oaks, stands 
somewhat back from a quiet country road. It is a cross- 
shaped building, rudely, but strongly, constructed of 

8 A most complete and interesting account of the Lee family 
was written by Doctor Edmund Jennings Lee and published as Lee 
of Virginia. 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 331 

Colonial brick, with steep, shingled root' and Large square 
windows, filled with many little panes of glass and pro- 
tected by heavy wooden outside shutters. Over the door 
appears the date, 1706, in which year the church was built. 
Outside, near the porch, stands an old sun-dial with the 
name Philip Smith and the date 1717 inscribed upon its 
face, and down the hill is a clear, sparkling spring with 
an ancient iron dipper, bearing the initials P. C. (Presley 
Cox) upon its bowl, chained to its brink. A brick wall 




?!■*&.-_ afi£ - • 3*3» 

YEOCOMICO CHURCH, WESTM< IRELAND COUNTY 

around the church and its full graveyard completes the 
picture and adds to the effect of seclusion and peacefulness. 
After the Revolution, when everything English was 
unpopular in America, the Episcopal Church languished in 
this section. Cople Parish was without a rector for over 
fifty years, and Yeocomico fell into decay. During the 
War of 1812 a detachment of United States soldiers, sent 
to the neighborhood to watch the movements of the British 
fleet on the Potomac, quartered in the church, and later 
on in the same year a company of militia camped there. 



332 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

These last shamefully desecrated the old sanctuary. The 
Communion table was taken into the yard and made to 
serve as a butcher's block, the beautiful marble font was 
carried off and used as a punch-bowl, and the tablets upon 
which the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer and the 
Creed were inscribed were ruthlessly mutilated. 

With the regular soldiers that had quartered in the 
church was Mr. William L. Rogers, of Princeton, New 
Jersey, to whom the building and its surroundings made a 
strong appeal. He returned to Westmoreland in 1820, 
and finding the church still in its dismantled state proposed 
to Mr. Murphy, a Scotch gentleman of culture and piety, 
and a Presbyterian, whose estate surrounded the church 
property, to aid him in an attempt at its restoration. Others 
joined in the movement and the good work was soon ac- 
complished. The sacred table was polished and it and the 
font returned to their places, where they may still be seen, 
and the church regained its former dignity of appearance. 
The Communion plate and damask cloths and napkins 
marked with the name of the church had been kept safe 
and carefully guarded from violation by Mrs. Willoughby 
Newton, of Lee Hall. 

In 1834 the Reverend George Washington Nelson be- 
came rector of Yeocomico and the churches in Richmond 
County, and the Episcopalians and Methodists of the 
neighborhood used Yeocomico jointly, " in Christian har- 
mony and good will," says Bishop Meade. But during the 
rectorship of Mr. Nelson's successor, Mr. Ward, who took 
charge in 1842, the question of the right of possession was 
raised, and not until the matter was taken before the Legis- 
lature was it settled by a decision giving to the vestry and 
wardens of the Episcopal Church exclusive right to use and 
control the building. 

Several of the Lee homes were in Cople Parish, and 
Wakefield, the Washington home, was not far away, and 
in the few lists of vestrymen of Yeocomico that remain 
both the Washingtons and Lees are well represented, 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 333 

with other names which have become historic to a less 
degree. 

Notwithstanding its many vicissitudes the influence of 
the old church has been widespread. Among its sons, who 
by entering the ministry have handed on its teachings, may 
be mentioned the Right Reverend John Brockenbrough 
Newton, Right Reverend John Poyntz Tyler, and Rever- 
end Willoughby Newton Claybrook. 

The old glebe of Cople Parish is still standing. 

FARNHAM CHURCH 
Farnham Church, Richmond County, was originally a 
large cruciform building and was one of the best parish 
churches in the colony. Fire has destroyed all but the solid 




FARNHAM CHURCH, RICHMOND COUNTY 

walls, but a movement for its restoration has been for some 
time under way, and it is expected that before many years 
it will be again in use. 

SABINE HALL * 

Sabine Hall,* built in 1730 for Landon Carter (1710- 
1778), a younger son of Robert (" King ") Carter by his 
second wife, Betty Landon, and still the home of his de- 
scendants, crowns a commanding site overlooking the 

* Sec illustration at head of List of Illustrations and on 
page 327. 



334 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Rappahannock, in Richmond County, adjoining West- 
moreland. It possesses a unique feature among Virginia 
homes, in the lodge at the gate occupied by a negro retainer 
and his family. The visitor is apt to receive his first wel- 
come from a smiling pickaninny who runs out of the lodge, 
and with polite salutation swings wide the gate admitting 
him to a driveway that winds through a wide green park, 
to the noble mansion shining out from the grove that im- 
mediately surrounds it. The Greek portico gives entrance 
to a spacious hall, panelled to the ceiling, which is homelike 
and cosy with charming old furniture, and is used, after the 
familiar Virginia fashion in such homes, as reception and 
living room. Doors on either side of the hall open into 
drawing-rooms, library and dining-room, filled with 
Colonial furniture, and rich in family portraits and other 
heirlooms. Especially interesting is the dining-room, with 
its array of massive silver of unique pattern and workman- 
ship — many pieces bearing the Carter arms — gleaming 
from its background of polished mahogany. 

Among the most striking of the portraits are those of 
" King Carter " in the gorgeous costume in which fashion 
permitted a gentleman of his time to adorn himself, and 
his first wife, Judith, daughter of Honorable John Armi- 
stead, of Hesse, Gloucester County; Colonel Landon 
Carter himself, and the three stately dames, who in his 
time successively carried the keys of Sabine Hall. These 
ladies before they became, by turn, Madam Carter, of 
Sabine Hall, were Elizabeth Wormeley, of " Rosegill," 
Maria Byrd, of " Westover," and Elizabeth Beale. 

A handsome stairway in the cross-hall leads to the 
second story, where the great central hall, panelled like 
the one below, is used as a billiard-room. 

A second pillared portico extends across the rear of the 
house, and from this, looking beyond the terraced garden 
with its old-fashioned flowers and herbs, the master of 
Sabine Hall may enjoy an unobstructed view of his lands, 
for most of the wide sweep of fertile country that stretches 
away to the river still belongs to this estate of 4000 acres. 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 337 

The builder of Sabine Hall and his family were con- 
spicuous figures in the distinguished society for which 
Westmoreland and Richmond Counties were famous. As 
a burgess and vestryman he was influential both in Church 
and State. A recent writer says of him, "A high-minded 
public servant and a finished scholar, indulging a taste for 
science and a love for letters, Landon Carter's reputation 
has come down to us making him one of the most notable 
of the pre-Revolutionary statesmen in the colony. He 
was living in 1776, at Sabine Hall, retired from public 
praise . . . and looked up to by the younger generation as 
a Nestor among his compatriots. Some of his correspond- 
ence at this period with Washington and the Lees has 
been preserved; these letters attesting the estimation in 
which he was held for his wisdom, talents, and integrity, 
while his own epistles prove him worthy of the regard and 
veneration which were given him." 

An interesting contribution to the " sources " of Vir- 
ginia history has been made in the publication, in the 
William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Maga- 
zine (beginning with an instalment in the July, 1909, 
number : volume xiii, No. 1 ) , of an abstract of a voluminous 
diary kept by Landon Carter. The first entry in the diary 
was dated January 14, 1770. 

Sabine Hall descended from Colonel Landon Carter 
to his son by his third marriage, Robert Wormeley Carter, 
who was for a number of years a prominent member of the 
Virginia Assembly. He married Winifred Beale, was the 
father of a goodly number of children, among them a second 
Colonel Landon Carter, who inherited the " Hall " and by 
his first marriage with Catherine Tayloe, of " Mt. Airy," 
was the father of the " next heir " — a second Robert 
Wormeley Carter. Upon the death of this Robert 
Wormeley Carter, in 1861, the estate passed to his sister 
Elizabeth, the wife of Doctor Armistead Nelson Wellford, 
and thence to their son, Carter Wellford, Esquire, who 
with his wife (who was Elizabeth Harrison, of the James 
River family) and their children makes his abode in the 
beautiful old home of his forefathers. 

22 



338 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

MT. AIRY 

Within walking distance of Sabine Hall, Mt. Airy 
stands in gracious dignity upon the top of a high hill, about 
three miles back from the Rappahannock. From the rear, 
the house looks upon miles of broad, gleaming river, with 
the houses of the little town of Tappahannock nestling 
among the green trees of Essex, on its farther shore, while 
on the nearer, spreads out like a map from the foot of the 
abrupt " Mount " an unbroken landscape, beautifully 
diversified with field and forest. Much of this stretch of 
level country is a part of the great Mt. Airy estate. 

The house, containing with its wings about twenty-five 
rooms, was built in 1758, by Colonel John Tayloe, 9 who 
first lived on the part of the plantation nearer the river, 
where brick foundations ar£ yet to be traced and which is 
still known as the " Old place field." Native brown sand- 
stone was the material chosen, with facings of white stone 
brought from England. It is designed after the style of 
an Italian villa, and is unlike any other Colonial Virginia 
building. There is a centre building flanked by wings, 
which stand some distance from, and in advance of, the 
main structure, and are joined to it by curved glazed cov- 
ered ways, formerly used as conservatories. The mansion 
is thus given a semi-circular form, half enclosing a grass 
plot reached from the main entrance by heavy, brownstone 
steps ornamented with bronze dogs. From the grass plot 
a terrace, descended by another massive stairway of brown- 
stone, with balustrades bearing stone urns, slopes to the 
level of the park. Below the terrace and just in front of 
the stairway is an ancient sun-dial, and beyond this lies to 
the northward a great grove of old oaks and cedars, once 
the home of a goodly herd of deer. 

The back windows of the house look southward upon 
the gardens, which encompass the sides as well as the rear 
of the building. The series of terraces here at the back 

9 Tayloe family : Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 
xvii, p. 5369 et seq. 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 341 

slope to a level piece of greensward in their midst, known 
as the " Bowling Green." In the garden, on the right, 
covered by ivy and shaded hy willows, are some brick 
arches which call to mind monastic remains in the ancient 
English parks, but are really the ruins of an old con- 
servatory. 

Mt. Airy, like most of the old Virginia homes, was 
celebrated for hospitality. Many a pretty romance might 
be woven of the beauty and chivalry which met within its 
spacious walls; of good will and good cheer; of stately 




MT. AIRY, REAR VIEW 

compliment and sparkling jest; of tap of high-heeled 
slipper to the irresistible tune furnished by some ebon-hued 
master of the fiddle and bow ; of dashing hunt and glowing 
race. The " Old Bowl at Mt. Airy " was often taxed to 
the limit of its ample proportions to furnish good healths 
for the numerous company that gathered about it. This 
festive piece of pottery with its jolly sides decorated with 
processions of comical Chinamen was the inspiration of a 
poet who sung its praise in some thirty lively stanzas pub- 
lished in the Southern Literary Messenger. 

A graphic picture of life at Mt. Airy in the early part 



342 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

of the last century has been preserved in a rare, privately 
printed book, by Nicholas St. John Baker, an English 
diplomatist who was in this country in May, 1827. He 
arrived at Mt. Airy at about six o'clock of a May after- 
noon, and " met with a very kind reception from Mrs. 
William Tayloe and the ladies." Mr. Tayloe was " absent 
at a race," but joined his guests and the ladies while they 
were " strolling over the garden before tea." Next morn- 
ing the writer " joined a large party at breakfast." That 
meal over, the presence of the gentlemen was " required at 
the club on the course," so the entertainment of the stranger 
was again left to the ladies; but at half-past twelve, after 
partaking of a luncheon, all repaired to the race-course in 
a field on the Mt. Airy estate. 

Mr. Baker was evidently much impressed with the Vir- 
ginia ladies. He remarks upon the beauty of those he 
saw at the race, and tells how that evening he " took a 
walk with the ladies in the park," where " he saw many 
fine deer." He jots down notes concerning details of the 
house and grounds that interest him. Among them, " Up- 
stairs a long gallery with family portraits — the Corbins, 
Platers, etc. The conservatory large, with orange and 
lemon trees put out in the grass. An extensive garden, in 
squares and terraces." 

The collection of old portraits mentioned by the visitor 
is interesting. Among the personages to be found in this 
company of " courtly ladies of brocade " who have " long 
since ceased to be," and gentlemen " with powdered wigs 
and waistcoats long," are the three Colonels John Tayloe, 
of Mt. Airy, and their wives; Governors Samuel and 
Benjamin Ogle, of Maryland, and their wives; Governor 
George Plater; Colonel Richard Corbin and his wife 
(Betty Tayloe) ; William Tayloe II, and Benjamin Ogle 
Tayloe; Mrs. William H. Tayloe; Mrs. Gwynne and 
Cornelius Lyde. 

The house abounds in heirlooms. In the library may be 
seen (among other objects characteristic of the early his- 
tory of Mt. Airy) portraits of fine race-horses, including 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 343 

one of " Grey Diomede," and colored racing and sporting 
prints which hung in the rooms of the John Tayloes, second 
and third of the name, when they were students at an 
English university. In the collection of beautiful silver 
at Mt. Airy are some racing cups won by horses of the old- 
time Tayloes. 

No old Virginia mansion is quite complete without a 
ghost. Among the gay gentlemen, who in the good old 
days always found the latch string on the outside of the 
door at the home of the Tayloes was a famous huntsman, 
Sir Jenings Beckwith, a descendant of a noble English 
family, who (though he was born in Virginia) inherited 
the family rank and title of baronet. For Sir Jenings the 
fine hunting, fair ladies and good cheer of this beautiful 
roof-tree proved such never-failing attractions that he 
spent much of his life there, and, when his days had run out, 
it was there that death found him. It is said that even to 
this day he oftentimes comes back and makes a round of 
his favorite haunts at Mt. Airy. 

Colonel John Tayloe, the builder of Mt. Airy, belonged 
to the third generation of his family in Virginia. His 
grandfather, William Tayloe, of London, came to Virginia 
in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and was a 
burgess in 1710. He married Anne, daughter of Honor- 
able Henry Corbin (circa 1629-1676), of Middlesex 
County, and had one son, John Tayloe I ( 1687-1747) , who 
was a member of the Colonial Council in 1732. John I 
married Elizabeth, daughter of Maj. David Gwynne, and 
widow of Stephen Lyde, and left two daughters, Betty, 
who married Colonel Richard Corbin, of " Laneville," re- 
ceiver-general of Virginia, and Anne Corbin, the second 
wife of Mann Page, of Rosewell, afterwards of Mannsfield, 
Spottsvlvania County, and one son, Colonel John Tay- 
loe II (1721-1779), the builder of Mt. Airy, in 1758, who 
was also a member of the Colonial Council and was noted as 
a turfman before the Revolution. He married Mary, 
sister of Governor George Plater (1736-1792), of Mary- 
land, and was the father of eight daughters who married 



344 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

into the most distinguished families of the day, the Lees, 
the Washingtons, the Carters, the Berkeleys, the Pages, 
the Wormeleys, the Lomaxes and the Corbins, of Virginia, 
and the Lloyds of Maryland, and one son, Colonel John 
Tayloe III (1771-1828), who, of course, was the next 
heir and master of Mt. Airy. He was educated at Eton 
and Oxford, and was a member of the Senate and House 
of Delegates of the State of Virginia. Like his father, he 
was a successful turfman and owned such celebrated race- 
horses as Belair, Grey Diomede, and others. He married 
Anne, daughter of Governor Benjamin Ogle, of Mary- 
land, and was survived by six sons and five daughters. His 
eldest son, John IV, entered the navy and was distinguished 
in the battles of the Constitution and the Guerriere 
and with the Cyano and Levant. After the first action 
the State of Virginia presented him with a sword. He 
was captured in the Levant by a British squadron, 
while lying at Port Praya, Cape de Verde Islands. He 
died in 1824, at Mt. Airy. His brother, William H. Tay- 
loe, of Mt. Airy, was the father of Mr. Henry Tayloe, who 
married Miss Henrietta Chinn, and inherited this fair and 
storied villa, which in its hundred and fifty years has not 
been owned by any one not of the name and blood of 
Tayloe. Mt. Airy is now owned by the family of the late 
Henry Tayloe. 

Another brother of John Tayloe, of the navy, was Mr. 
Benjamin Ogle Tayloe, who lived at the interesting 
" Octagon house " in Washington City. 

MENOKIN 

Francis Lightfoot Lee (1734-1797), sixth son of 
Thomas Lee (1690-1750), of Stratford, and Hannah 
Ludwell, his wife, was born at Stratford and was educated 
there by a private tutor, who made of him a good scholar, 
with a love for the classics and general literature. Upon 
coming of age he settled first in Loudoun County, where 
he was one of the founders of the town of Leesburg, and 
in 1765 represented Loudoun in the House of Burgesses. 
It was upon his marriage with Rebecca, daughter of John 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 345 

Tayloe II, of Mt. Airy, that he removed to Richmond 
County, where lie was chosen a burgess, and where he built 
the house that bears the Indian name of Menokin. 

In 1775, 1776, 1777 and 1778 he was a member of the 
Continental Congress, and he was one of the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence. A recent writer upon the 
"signers" says, " In the spring of 1779 Mr. Lee retired 
from Congress and returned to his home, to which both his 
temper and inclination led him, with delight." This home 
was Menokin. 




MENOKIN, RICHMOND COUNTY 

After the Revolution Mr. Lee was an influential mem- 
ber of the Virginia Senate. 

The master of Menokin was social and domestic in his 
tastes, and reading, farming and intercourse with his neigh- 
bors and kindred filled his latter days and made his home a 
centre of pleasant country life. He died there in 1797. 
He left no children and bequeathed Menokin to his wife 
for life, and afterward to his nephew, Ludwell Lee, second 
son of his distinguished brother, Richard Henry Lee. His 
wife survived him but a short while, and Ludwell Lee be- 
came the owner of Menokin, which after his time passed 
from the family. 



346 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 



CLEVE 

A sturdy and handsome old mansion is Cleve, beau- 
tifully situated on the Rappahannock, in King George 
County. The original house, built by Colonel Charles 
Carter in 1729, was later burned, but it was restored upon 
its old walls in 1800. 

The house is noticeable from the river by its large num- 
ber of windows set in wide, white stone frames. 

Colonel Charles Carter, of Cleve, a son of " King " 
Carter, by his second wife, Betty Landon, was long a bur- 




1/- M0m : --m 



% tfT- HE.:"* f ' 





CLEVE, KING GEORGE COUNTY 

gess for his county, and was one of the three commissioners 
appointed by Lord Fairfax to look after his interests. His 
first wife was Mary Walker, whom he married in 1728. 
In July, 1743, Colonel John Lewis wrote Lawrence Wash- 
ington, among other bits of news : " Mr. Wormeley and 
Colonel Charles Carter have lost their Ladys." Just a 
year later, William Beverley, in a letter to Lord Fairfax, 
then in England, announced the recent weddings of 
" Colonel Charles Carter and Colonel Landon Carter to 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 347 

the two Miss Byrds." The brides of these widower brothers 
were Anne and INI aria, daughters of Colonel William 
Byrd II, of Westover. Interesting portraits of them at 
the ages of nine and eleven were painted by Bridges, and 
(after she became mistress of Cleve) Anne's portrait, 
with that of her husband and two of her children, was 
painted by Hesselius. 

Colonel Charles Carter's third wife was Lucy Talia- 
ferro. 

Besides being a large land-holder, Colonel Carter was 
a scientific planter, and, in his will, directed that his estate 
should be managed according to a manuscript book he had 
prepared. He was succeeded at Cleve by a younger son, 
Landon, and he, in turn, by his bachelor sons, Edward 
and Colonel St. Leger Landon Carter. Colonel St. Leger 
Landon Carter was one of the early contributors to the 
Southern Literary Messenger, writing over the signature 
" Nugator." He also published a small volume entitled 
Nugae. One who saw Cleve during the ownership of the 
last Carters described the large hall hung with a double 
row of family portraits and a great quantity of family 
silver engraved with arms, but much tarnished, as bachelor 
possessions are apt to be. After their death Cleve passed, 
by sale, to the Lewis family (descendants of Fielding 
Lewis and his second wife, Betty Washington), and they 
still own it. Among its many interesting contents is a 
portrait of Mrs. Betty Washington Lewis. 

Charming, also, is the portrait of Colonel Charles 
Carter, in wig and scarlet coat embellished with many gilt 
buttons, which still hangs at Cleve, though the estate has 
been so long out of the Carter famliy. 

BARNSFIELD 

Before the day of railroads, one of the most noted 
places on the route, North and South, was Hooe's Ferry 
over the Potomac. In King George County, close to the 
ferry and close to the broad river, is Barnsfield, where, since 



348 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

1715, the Hooes have had a home. But few families in 
Virginia, and, indeed, but few in America, can trace so 
long a line in male descent in this country, for since Rice 
Hooe came to Virginia, in 1621, his descendants have 
been large land owners and prominent socially and in 
military and civil affairs. 1( ' 

During the War between the States, the old house was 
the residence of Dr. A. B. Hooe. Hooe's Ferry was a 
favorite place for blockade-runners from Maryland to Vir- 
ginia, and the Federal troops burned Barnsfield on the 




,, 




BARNSFIELD, KING GEORGE COUNTY 

ground, as they charged, that the blockade-runners were 
guided by signal lights from its windows. 

The quaint picture, made many years ago, shows a typi- 
cal Virginia farm-house, a part probably built as early as 
1715, which was extended by rambling wings and additions 

10 Hayden, Virginia Genealogies, pp. 716-719, and Virginia 
Magazine of History and Biography, iv, pp. 427—429. 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 349 

as the needs of the family increased. The row of Lombardy 
poplars close to the edge of the bluff, the weeping willows, 
the negroes working on boats or cutting driftwood unite 
to form a picture which could be duplicated many times 
along ourTivers. The house was not a stately " mansion " 
but a roomy old farm-house which was of much more 
familiar type. 

CHATHAM 

Upon a green hill in Stafford County, just across the 
Rappahannock from Fredericksburg, stands Chatham, 
looking upon the old town and a long way up and down the 
river valley. 




CHATHAM, STAFFORD COUNTY 



This noble mansion with its ample central building and 
commodious wings, its stout brick walls and lofty columns, 
was built some time before the Revolution, by William 
Fitzhugh (1742-after 1787), whose earlier residence was 
Eagle's Nest, in King George County. 

Mr. Fitzhugh was the son of Henry Fitzhugh (1706- 
1742) , of Eagle's Nest (who matriculated at Christ Church 
College, Oxford, in 1722), and his wife, Lucy, daughter 
of Honorable Robert ("King") Carter, of Corotoman. 



350 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Henry Fitzhugh was a grandson of Colonel William Fitz- 
hugh (1651-1701), first of the family in Virginia. 11 

William Fitzhugh, of Chatham, who is said to have 
been educated in England, was long in public life and was 
a man of high character and wide influence. He was a 
member of the House of Burgesses, of all the Revolu- 
tionary Conventions and the Continental Congress. He 
was an ardent devotee of the turf, owning many noted race 
horses both before and after the Revolution. Among his 
several large estates was Ravensworth, in Fairfax County, 
to which he moved toward the close of his life. He married 
Anne, daughter of Peter Randolph, of Chatsworth, and 
their daughter Mary Randolph Fitzhugh married George 
Washington Parke Custis, of Arlington, and was the 
mother of the wife of General Robert E. Lee. Mr. Fitz- 
hugh was a great-uncle of the distinguished divine, Bishop 
Meade, of Virginia. 

In Mr. Fitzhugh's time and afterward, Chatham was 
famous for its hospitality. General Washington was a 
frequent guest there and it is said that he once wrote Mr. 
Fitzhugh that among the most interesting memories of 
his life were those of his visits to Chatham, adding, " I 
have put my legs oftener under your mahogany at Chat- 
ham than anywhere else in the world, and have enjoyed 
your good dinners, good wine and good company more 
than any other." 

Mr. Fitzhugh finally sold Chatham to Major Churchill 
Jones, an officer in the Continental Army, who, having no 
children, bequeathed it to his only brother, William Jones. 
Hannah, the daughter of William Jones, became the second 
wife of Judge John Coalter, of the Court of Appeals of 
Virginia. William Jones conveyed Chatham to his son- 
in-law, Judge Coalter, upon condition that he should pay ( 
to the widow of Major Churchill Jones the annuity of 

^Fitzhugh family: Virginia Magazine of History and Bio- 
graphy, vii, 196-199, 317-322, 425-427; viii, 41-15, 209-211, 
314-317, 430-432; ix, 99-104. 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 351 

$15,000.00 with which the estate was charged. Judge 
Coalter at his death gave a life interest to his widow, 
bequeathing the property, at her death, to his two children 
(by an earlier marriage with a daughter of Judge St. 
George Tucker), St. George Coalter and Elizabeth, the 
wife of Mr. John Randolph Bryan and mother of the 
late Mr. Joseph Bryan, of Richmond. 

Chatham was later bought by Major J. Horace Lacy, 
was long his home, and during the War between the States 
was known as " The Lacy House." It was sold by Major 
Lacy to Oliver Watson, and by him to Mr. William Mays. 
From Mays the house and thirty acres of the original tract 
passed, by purchase, to Fleming Bailey, who later sold it to 
A. Randolph Howard. 

General Robert E. Lee, as well as General Washing- 
ton, was a frequent guest at Chatham, and it is said that 
under the beautiful old trees that stood on the lawn Gen- 
eral Lee addressed his wife. These trees were felled by 
Northern soldiers when General Burnside made his head- 
quarters at Chatham. 

President Lincoln spent several days at Chatham, on 
a visit to the army under Burnside, and from the river bank 
before Chatham pontoon bridges were built, upon which 
the Federal Army crossed to the occupation of Fredericks- 
burg, and the great battle. 

BOSCOBEL 

Boscobel, an estate now containing six hundred and 
twenty acres, is situated in -Stafford County, four miles 
from Fredericksburg. The charming old dwelling house 
which stands on the highest point between the Potomac and 
Rappahannock Rivers was erected some one hundred and 
fifty years ago "by Thomas Fitzhugh (1725-1768), a son 
of Henry Fitzhugh, of " Bedford," and grandson of that 
worthy William Fitzhugh, emigrant ancestor of the family 
in Virginia, lawyer, merchant, landed proprietor, member of 
the House of Burgesses and militia officer. From Thomas 
Fitzhugh (who inherited the estate from his father) Bos- 



352 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

cobel passed to Thomas Fitzhugh, the younger, who in turn 
devised the seat to his two daughters, Sarah Stuart and 
Henrietta, both maiden ladies, who sold it in 1847 to Wil- 
liam Henry Fitzhugh (1788-1859), their brother, and 
William A. Little (whose wife was a Miss Fitzhugh). 12 
After the War between the States a division of the estate 
was made by these two gentlemen, the " mansion house " 
and surrounding acreage falling to Mr. Little's lot, and 
thus Boscobel's title remained in the Fitzhugh family from 




BOSCOBEL, NEAR FREDERICKSBURG 

the time of the original grant until comparatively recently, 
when Mr. Charles H. Hurkamp (the present owner) pur- 
chased the place from Mr. Little. 

The old homestead has been well preserved, and the 
lawn, grove and old-fashioned garden are kept to-day as 
originally laid off. The house is after the order of a roomy 
cottage and buried in a cluster of wonderful trees. In 

12 For an account of the Fitzhughs see Virginia Magazine of 
History and Biography, volumes vii, viii, and ix. 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 353 

what was the old " parlor," now the living-room of the 
house,is an old-fashioned open fireplace of generous dimen- 
sions, in whose back is set a massive east-iron plate, bearing 
the legend: " T. F. 1752," somewhat scarred by the flames 
of many a winter, 'tis true, but still clearly legible. Six or 
more other rooms of the house are endowed with these 
ample fireplaces. 

From two moderately sized porches — one at the front 
and the other at the rear of the house — magnificent views 




OLD-TIME METHOD OK COOKING AS USED AT BOSCOBEL UP TO 1905 

to the north and south are to be had from this quaint 
" manor " which nestles on the very backbone of the ridge 
dividing the Northern Neck. 

Until comparatively recently the old " outdoor" kitchen 
was in service at Boscobel, and many are the stories of 
accomplished cooks and temptingly prepared spreads which 
issued thence to the " great house." The old kitchen stands 
on one side of the yard and near the circular driveway lead- 
ing to the entrance steps, while a building of similar size and 
shape stands opposite — a bit, as it were, " to balance the 



354 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

landscape " — and used doubtless as a quarter for house ser- 
vants. 

The Boscobel dwelling was destroyed by fire in March, 
1915. 

ACQUIA CHURCH 

Over the south door of the old Acquia Church, in Over- 
wharton Parish, Stafford County, is this inscription: 
" Built A. D. 1751. Destroyed by fire 1751 and rebuilt 
A. D. 1757 by Mourning Richards, Undertaker. William 




ACQUIA CHURCH, STAFFORD COUNTY 

Copein, Mason." It may be well to remind the reader, 
especially in view of the Christian name of Mr. Richards, 
that undertaker in those days meant contractor. 

Overwharton Parish goes back to a much earlier date 
than that upon the church, but earlier houses of worship in 
it were probably of wood, and all traces of them have 
passed away. Acquia still has in possession and in regu- 
lar use a Communion service of massive, beaten silver, of 
three pieces — chalice, cup and paten — each piece bearing 
the inscription: " The gift of the Rev. Alex. Scott, A.M., 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 355 

late minister of this parish, Anno 17-39." Mr. Scott 
served the parish nearly twenty-eight years, and the date 
upon the silver is that of the year of his death. 1 " The 
service was buried in the ground for safe keeping dining 
the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the War 
between the States. 

Acquia Church was built during the rectorship of the 
Reverend John Moncure (1709/10-1 764), 14 who was 




INTERIOR OF ACQUIA CHURCH 

buried in the chancel, and whose descendants are still 
among the staunchest supporters of the parish. Under 
the Communion table is a marble slab upon which are the 
words " In memory of the Race of the House of Moncure." 
Acquia is one of the most beautiful and best preserved 

13 A full sketch of the life of Reverend Alexander Scott (1686— 
1738) is given in Hayden, Virginia Genealogies, p. 591 et seq. 

14 For an account of Reverend John Moncure and his de- 
scendants see Hayden, Virginia Genealogies, p. 424 et seq. 



356 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

examples of Colonial church architecture in America. It is 
cross-shaped, with thick walls of checkered brickwork, 
sloping roof and square tower for clock and bell. Though 
the existence of this impressive old sanctuary has been 
threatened by three wars, and during the last it was a camp- 
ing place for soldiers, it stands to-day in perfect repair 
and unchanged by fancy or fashion. The stone-paved 
aisles, the lofty, " three decker " pulpit, with its overhang- 
ing sounding board, and the square pews are all there. In 
the chancel are four tablets upon which are inscribed the 
Lord's Prayer, the Creed and the Ten Commandments. 

MT. VERNON 

The most notable of Virginia mansions and planta- 
tions will always be Mt. Vernon, the home during life, in 
death the resting place of all that was mortal of George 
Washington. 

The Mt. Vernon estate was part of a tract of 5000 acres 
granted by Lord Culpeper in 1644 to Colonel John Wash- 
ington and Nicholas Spencer. Half of it descended in 
time to Colonel John Washington's great-grandson, Law- 
rence Washington, who built the mansion and named it Mt. 
Vernon after the British admiral under whom he served. 
At the death of Lawrence Washington it passed to his half- 
brother George, who enlarged both house and plantation. 
After General Washington's death Mrs. Washington 
made her home at Mt. Vernon until her own death, when 
the place passed to her husband's nephew, Bushrod Wash- 
ington, and from him to John Augustine Washington, and 
from him to John Augustine Washington, Jr., who in 
1858 sold 200 acres, including the mansion and tombs, to 
the Mt. Vernon Ladies' Association, a national organiza- 
tion formed for the purpose of restoring and preserving 
the home of George Washington. 

The situation of Mt. Vernon is peculiarly happy, for 
the waters of the same broad Potomac upon whose banks 
lies Wakefield, the birth-place of Washington, lap its 
shores, while but a short way up the river the white dome 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 359 

of the Capitol that his deeds made possible shines out 
against blue heaven. Mt. Vernon, the Mecca of all true 
Americans, thus stands upon what might well be called 
Washington's River, between the place where he first saw 
the light of day and the crowning monument to his genius. 
The most interesting approach to Mt. Vernon is by 
water, for the river-landing by which " the many-sided 
Washington " kept in touch with the world and sent the 
produce of his beautiful plantation to market teems with 
memories of him as the thrifty husbandman and man of 
business. 




MT. VERNON, REAR VIEW 

Not far from the wharf is the family graveyard where 
above the doorway of a massive but severely plain brick 
vault the visitor reads: "Within this enclosure rest the 
remains of General Washington," and between the bars of 
heavy iron gates he gazes with reverent eyes upon two 
white marble sarcophagi in which lie, side by side, the 
bodies of George Washington and Martha, his wife. How 
calmly, how simply can true greatness, when the day is 
done, lie down to pleasant dreams! For pleasant indeed 
they must be within the embrace of his own home, in the 
region of his own achievements. So says the pilgrim to 



360 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

himself, then goes on his way with softened vision, and a 
spirit in tune for the view of the homestead and its environs. 
Charming are the ample grounds with their many 
varieties of goodly trees, some of which are historic, their 
wooded deer-park with its shy, soft-eyed and fleet-footed 
inhabitants, their long bowling green and expanse of velvet 
turf stretching down to the river. Full of suggestion are 
the quaint outbuildings — the dormer-windowed servants' 
quarters; the kitchen, with its great crane and bake oven, 
planned for preparation of the abundant feasts upon which 
the guests that flocked to Mt. Vernon by coach and by 
boat were regaled; the smoke-house, where bacon of the 
true old Virginia flavor was cured; the coach-house, with 
its antiquated chariot; the spinning-house, where clothing 
for the slaves and rag-carpets and other fabrics for the 
house were woven, and where may still be seen the ancient 
loom wheels, reels and brake. But the most appealing of 
all the outside features, most redolent of memories of 
George in his queue and Martha in her cap, is the fascinat- 
ing old flower garden which they planned, where the prim 
hedges of dwarf-box which they planted still define innum- 
erable tidy beds of old-fashioned flowers. In Washington's 
time distinguished visitors were invited to plant trees, 
shrubs or flowers in the garden and many of these me- 
morials still flourish — among them a tree planted by 
Lafayette and one by Jefferson. A musk-cluster rose 
named by Washington for his mother, and other roses 
named for himself and Nelly Custis are also pointed out. 

Mt. Vernon house stands three stories high, including 
the dormer- windowed attic, with a cellar under the whole. 
It is built upon a foundation of stone and brick and its 
framework is of oak sheathed with North Carolina pine, 
cut, painted and sanded to resemble stone. The sloping 
roof is covered with cypress shingles. From the east front 
the mansion is entered through a long and wide square- 
pillared portico, paved with tiles imported from England 
by Washington. The driveway and the brass knocker 
upon the central door of the severely plain west front, 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 361 

show that it was the entrance for visitors. The windows 
upon this side look upon a wide green court hounded on 
either side hy outbuildings joined to the mansion by colon- 
nades. In the centre of the court a sun-dial marks the 
spot where one stood in Washington's time. 

House and grounds are exquisitely kept by the Mt. 
Vernon Association. Within, the house is still a completely 
equipped home, and many pieces of the beautiful old 
furniture actually used by the Washingtons liave been 
brought back and restored to their original places, while 
all of the furnishings and decorations are of the period. 
From the panelled hall one may look through open doors 
into four of the principal rooms of the first floor. They 
are the west parlor, with its sundry mementos of the great 
master of Mt. Vernon, its ornate wainscoting, its mantel 
with the Washington coat-of-arms carved above it; Nelly 
Custis's music room, where the pretty old harpsichord 
stands open, and where Washington's flute is preserved; 
the family dining-room, with its charming old sideboard; 
and Mrs. Washington's sitting-room, where the mantel- 
mirror, spindle-legged centre-table and some of the old 
furnishings are original. The library is also on this floor 
and in addition to the built-in book-shelves contains an old 
mahogany bookcase and some other pieces of its original 
furniture, but unfortunately few of Washington's own 
books are among those now on its shelves. The banquet- 
hall, at the east end of the house, contains many articles 
of beauty and interest. 

Ascending by the graceful stair to the second floor, we 
find six bedrooms possessed of that picturesqueness which 
stately " four posters " dressed in canopy and valance of 
snowy dimity or beflowered chintz, quaint chests of drawers, 
spindle-legged dressing tables and candle-stands give. 
These chambers are known as " Lafayette's room," the 
" river room," the " guest room," " Nelly Custis's room," 
the " green room," and " Washington's room." The bed 
in Washington's room is the one upon which he died, 



362 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

December 14, 1799, and some of the other articles in the 
room were used by him. In the dormer-windowed attic 
are six bedrooms used for guest-chambers when the house 
was crowded. One of them is known as " Mrs. Washing- 
ton's room." After General Washington's death his bed- 
chamber was (after the manner of the time) closed, and 
the wife chose for her own use the little room in the end 
of the attic, through whose only window she could look 
upon her husband's tomb. It was in this attic room that 
" Lady Washington " died on the twenty-second day of 
May, 1802. 

Young Thomas Lee Shippen, of Philadelphia, a 
grandson of Thomas Lee, the founder of Stratford, made, 
in 1790, a round of visits to the friends and relatives of his 
family in Virginia. In a letter to his father he thus de- 
scribes his impressions of the home of Washington : 

Mount Vernon, 16 Sept., 1790. 
My dear Father and Friend. 

This is to be sure a delightful place. Nothing seems wanting 
to render it a fit residence of its owner, worthy to employ and 
amuse the leisure of so great a man as our President. 

I have been here two days and have seen most of the improve- 
ments which do honor at once to the taste and industry of our 
Washington. I have been treated, as usual, with every most 
distinguished mark of kindness and attention. Hospitality in- 
deed seems to have spread over the whole place its happiest, 
kindest influence. The President exercises it in a superlative de- 
gree, from the greatest of its duties to the most trifling minutiae, 
and Mrs. Washington is the very essence of kindness. Her soul 
seems to overflow with it like the most abundant fountain, and 
her happiness is in exact proportion to the number of objects upon 
which she can dispense her benefits. 

POHICK CHURCH 

But a short distance from Mt. Vernon stands old Po- 
hick, the parish church of both Mt. Vernon and Gunston 
Hall — the Mason home. This church was built in 1769 to 
replace an earlier frame structure, and the Washingtons 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 363 

and Masons were worshippers in the first sanctuary, as 
well as the second. 

In 1735 Augustine Washington was elected a vestry- 
man of Pohick and in 17(>2 George Washington and 
George William Fairfax were appointed church wardens. 
It is said that the plans of the present massive and com- 
modious building of brick, with stone trimmings, were 
drawn by General Washington himself. The building 
committee consisted of George Washington, George 




POHICK CHURCH, FAIRFAX COUNTY 

William Fairfax, George Mason, Daniel McCarthy and 
Edward Payne. 

Pohick Church was badly damaged by Federal troops 
during the War between the States, and when it was later 
repaired, through the generosity of a gentleman from New 
York, the interior was unfortunately modernized. More 
recently, however, its quaint and interesting appearance 
has been restored. 

It is the custom of the regents of the Mt. Vernon Asso- 
ciation to attend service once a year in old Pohick. 



364 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

GUNSTON HALL 

About one mile distant from Pohick Church stands 
Gunston Hall, the famous home of George Mason (1725- 
1792), author of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution 
of Virginia. 15 

The Gunston estate of 7000 acres was long since divided 
into small farms, most of which are now the property of 







JvjW '' "X**i 



GUNSTON HALL, FAIRFAX COUNTY 

northern settlers, but the mansion is as well preserved as 
Mt. Vernon, and more pretentious. It is eighty feet long 
by forty feet wide, with thick brick walls, tall chimneys 
and a long sloping roof. Standing somewhat back from 
the Potomac, upon a bold bluff, it makes a striking picture 

15 Mason family: Rowland, The Life and Letters of George 
Mason, 1725-1792, vol. i, chap. i. 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 365 

and commands a splendid view of the river. It possesses 
the spacious rooms and hall of Colonial mansions of its 
type, finished with handsomely carved wainscoting, much 
of which is said to have been brought from England. 

George Masoiyfft&h in descent from George Mason 
the Cavalier, who took refuge in Virginia in 1057) built 
Gunston Hall in 1758 and lived in it many years, during 
which it was a favorite resort of some of the most historic 
characters of those history-making days. Mt. Vernon is 
only four miles away, by river, and Washington, who kept 
a four-oared gig, rowed by a uniformed negro crew, often 
chose this way of visiting his friend and neighbor, Mason. 
Sometimes, too, on Sundays, after going to service at Po- 
hick, in his coach and four, the master of Mt. Vernon would 
drive home to dinner with the master of Gunston Hall. 
The dining-room at Gunston Hall in which the Father of 
his Country and other patriots were entertained is still 
pointed out. There are also " Jefferson's room," occupied 
by Thomas Jefferson, during his frequent visits to Guns- 
ton, and " Lafayette's room," in which the Marquis of 
Lafayette slept when he was a guest there during his visit 
to America after the Revolution. But the most notable 
apartment in the house is the great library, for though 
George Mason's greatest claim to fame is as the father of 
the Bill of Rights, his name is also intimately associated 
with the Declaration of Independence, and it is said that it 
was in this library that Jefferson and Mason together made 
the first draft of that immortal paper. 

After George Mason's death, Gunston Hall remained 
for some years in possession of his descendants, but was 
finally sold and has several times since changed hands. 

CHRIST CHURCH, ALEXANDRIA 

The pride of the old town of Alexandria is historic 
Christ Church, an impressive and well-kept building, 
standing in a spacious brick-walled churchyard, in the heart 
of the town. The architecture is much like that of Pohick 



366 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Church, and like Pohick its chief claim to distinction is the 
fact that Washington was at one time a vestryman. The 
Washington pew is still pointed out, and many are the 




CHRIST CHURCH, ALKXANDRIA 



tourists who come from Washington City by train and 
ferry for the privilege of sitting in it, if only for a few 
moments. It was in 1773 that the finished church was 
handed over to the vestry by the contractor and upon the 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 367 

same day General Washington purchased a pew for <£26, 
10, 8. 

General Lee also attended Christ Church during his 
boyhood, when he lived in Alexandria, and was in the habit 
of joining with the other young folk of the parish in dress- 
ing the church with evergreens at Christmas. In 1853, 
when he was a colonel in the United States Army, he was 
confirmed 03^ Bishop Johns, in this church. His pew, like 
Washington's, is marked with a silver plate, and is one of 
the chief objects of interest in the building where these 
two great generals are further memorialized by mural 
tablets. 

In the early days of its history, Christ Church had 
women as sextons; first, one Susannah Edwards, "who 
preceded the members of the congregation up the aisles, 
locating each family in their respective pews according to 
dignity," and later " Mistress Cook," who we are told was 
" peculiar in dress and physiognomy." She had " a stately 
manner of ushering people into their pews, and locking 
the door upon them, and with almost military air she 
patrolled the aisles, alert to detect and prompt to suppress 
any violation of order." 

THE CARLYLE HOUSE 

The Carlyle House, now a portion of the Braddock 
Hotel, on Fairfax Street, Alexandria, was built by John 
Carlyle (1720-1780), a wealthy merchant, in 1745> In 
architecture it is a fine example of an old Virginia mansion, 
with its spacious rooms, finished with beautiful woodwork, 
and, besides, it has a history. In 1755 it was occupied by 
Major General Edward Braddock, who here held a council, 
composed of himself and Governors Shirley, of Massachu- 
setts, Delancy, of New York, Morris, of Pennsylvania, 
Sharpe, of Maryland, Dinwiddie, of Virginia, Dobbs, of 
North Carolina, General St. Clair and Benjamin Frank- 
lin, for the purpose of planning the campaign against Fort 

16 Carlyle family: William and Mary Quarterly, xviii. pp. 201- 
212, 278-289. 



368 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Duquesne which ended so disastrously. The stately room 
in which this council was held is still pointed out. 

It was while General Braddock was at the Carlyle 
House that Washington became a member of his staff. 




CARLYLE HOUSE, ALEXANDRIA 

Efforts are being made by zealous antiquarians of 
Alexandria to secure the Carlyle House and preserve it 
as a museum. 




24 



THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND POTOMAC 371 

ARLINGTON 

Thought of Arlington brings before the mind's eye two 
pictures, one the white-columned mansion standing out 
from the crest of a high hill whose slopes are wooded with 
ancient oaks, the other (seen from the portico of the 
mansion itself) Washington City lying in clear view, but 
touched with the softened beauty that distance gives, seven 
miles away. The walk, or rather the climb, up hill under 
the oaks, and the view when the mansion in its plat of 
greensward at the top has been reached, must be a thing 
of actual experience to be appreciated. 

After the death of Mrs. Martha Washington, in 1802, 
George Washington Parke Custis, her grandson (who 
was also General Washington's adopted son), removed 
from Mt. Vernon to Arlington, which was built by him 
and named after the older Custis mansion in Northampton 
County, long since destroyed by fire. 

Mr. Custis married, in 1806, Mary Lee, daughter of 
William Fitzhugh, of Chatham, and he and his wife made 
Arlington a veritable seat of hospitality, where the most 
distinguished Europeans and Americans of the time were 
entertained. At least one notable wedding took place there 
when, upon June 30, 1831, Mary Ann Randolph Custis, 
the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Custis to survive infancy, 
gave her hand to Lieutenant Robert Edward Lee, then of 
the United States Corps of Engineers, afterward to be- 
come the great general and hero of the War between the 
States. Mr. Custis died October 10, 1857, and was buried 
by the side of his wife in the beautiful grove near Arlington 
house, where their tombs may still be seen. Their daughter, 
Mrs. Lee, inherited Arlington, and General Lee became 
deeply attached to the place and made his home there when- 
ever his military duties would permit. Writing, in 1861, 
of Arlington and its possible destruction by the Northern 
Army he said, " They cannot take away the remembrance 
of the spot, and the memories of those that to us rendered it 
sacred. That will remain to us as long as life will last, 



372 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

and that we can preserve. In the absence of a home I wish 
I could purchase Stratford." 

The house was stored with the most precious relics of 
" the Father of his Country," many of which were stolen 
in the early days of the War between the States. The place 
itself was taken possession of by the United States Gov- 
ernment and a military cemetery established there. This 
made it impossible to restore the estate to Mrs. Lee's heirs, 
but such relics as were seized by the Government have been 
returned and the estate has been paid for. 

Arlington is still used by the Government as a cemetery 
for army and naval officers, and the interest that gives it, 
added to the fact that it was the home of the Custises and 
Lees, draws thousands of tourists thither every year. 



PART VI 

Piedmont and the South Side 

piedmont 

ONE of the most attractive parts of Virginia is the 
Piedmont section lying, as its name indicates, at 
the foot of the mountains — that is, just east of 
the Blue Ridge — and embracing the counties of 
Loudoun, Fauquier, Culpeper, Orange and others. It is a 
country of fertile, well watered, beautifully undulating 
lands, whose many bold hills looking across wood and 
stream and meadow upon the blue mountains afford ideal 
sites for homes. The counties of this group were the last 
to be formed east of the Blue Ridge before the Revolution, 
and for this reason, together with their remote situation 
at the time, there do not remain many noted houses of the 
Colonial period. There are, however, some handsome and 
interesting ones of more recent date. 

OAK HILL 

Oak Hill, in Loudoun County, was the home of a 
president of the United States and looks the part. Stand- 
ing out from among century-old trees, upon a hill clothed 
with the deep-toned, deep-piled velvet of blue-grass, this 
noble brick mansion with its tall chimneys, and its Greek 
portico whose white columns are thirty feet high, dominates 
the country for miles around. Its windows look across 
rolling farm-lands, upon the Blue Ridge in one direction 
and the Catoctin Hills in another, while against the south- 
eastern sky stands lofty " Sugar-loaf." 

The house was built by James Monroe, during his presi- 
dency, to replace a dormer-windowed cottage which had 
long been the home of the Monroe family. It takes its 

373 



374 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

name from a group of fine oaks on the wide-spreading 
lawn on which President Monroe planted a tree from each 
State in the Union, presented to him for the purpose by the 
congressmen from the respective States. 

General Lafayette was a guest at Oak Hill during his 
visit to Virginia in 1824, and mementos of his stay may 




OAK HILL (FRONT), LOUDOUN COUNTY 



still be seen in the beautiful mantel-pieces in the drawing- 
room, which were presents from him to the house. 

Upon Monroe's death, in 1831, at the home of his 
daughter, Mrs. Gouverneur, of New York, Oak Hill passed 
to the Gouverneurs, who, in 1852, sold it to Colonel John 
M. Fairfax. Among Monroe relics that went with the 
place was a handsome backgammon table with ivory play- 
ing pieces, presented to Mr. Monroe by the American Min- 
ister at Paris. Between the wood and marble tops of this 
table Mrs. Fairfax found a safe hiding-place for her jewels 
when the house was searched by Northern soldiers, who 
frequently occupied it during the War between the States, 
but treated the home of Monroe with unusual respect. 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 375 

Many of the famous raids of the redoubtable Mosby 
were directed from the Oak Hill house, the front porch 
serving as a position of vantage. Colonel Fairfax was 
himself an officer on General Longstreet's staff, and was 
distinguished for bravery. A few years after the war lie 
sold Oak Hill to Dr. Quinby, of New York, but in 1885 




OAK HILL (REAR) 

it was bought back by his son, Mr. Henry Fairfax, who 
now makes his home there. Mr. Fairfax devotes himself to 
the care of the estate and the breeding of fine horses, and 
old Oak Hill, with its 1200 acres of grass-land and its 
stables providing winter quarters for over two hundred 
horses, is famous throughout Virginia and beyond. 

OATLANDS 

Oatlands, near the old town of Leesburg, in beautiful 
Loudoun County, was built in the year 1800 by George 
Carter, son of Robert (commonly called "Councillor") 
Carter, of Nomini Hall, Westmoreland, and great-grand- 
son of " King " Carter. 

The plantation of 5000 acres was part of the great 



376 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Fairfax estate, and was bought from Lord Fairfax by 
Councillor Carter and given to his son George upon his 
coming of age. 

The master of Oatlands was, like his father, the coun- 
cillor, a man of liberal education, devoted to books and 
music, and his home bears witness to his cultivated taste. 
The building of Oatlands and laying out of its grounds 
was a labor of love with him. He was his own architect 
and most of the work was done under his direction, by his 




OATLANDS, LOUDOUN COUNTY 

slaves. He died in 1846, leaving Oatlands house with 3000 
acres of land and 75 slaves to his eldest son, George Carter, 
who occupied it until 1894, when it was sold, with sixty 
acres, to Mr. Stilson Hutchins, of Washington, who in 
turn sold it to its present owner, Mr. William Corcoran 
Eustis. 

Oatlands has always played a prominent part in the 
social life of its neighborhood. Its present master is an 
enthusiastic hunter and lover of horses and is making the 
old place famous as a stock farm. 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 377 




OLD METHODIST CHURCH, LEESBURG 

MORVEN PARK 
Morven Park * with its 1000 acres of fertile land, its 
spacious and distinguished looking mansion, its wide 
stretches of greensward and its stately trees is one of the 
finest estates in all Virginia. It was built by Governor 
Swan, of Maryland, who made its name a synonym for 
hospitality. Its present master is Mr. Westmoreland 
Davis, M. F. H., of Loudoun County, who is, like so many 
country gentlemen of that section, an enthusiastic hunter 
and stock-raiser. 

RASPBERRY PLAIN 

Raspberry Plain, Loudoun County, was built about 
1771 by Thomson Mason (1733-1785), a brother of 
George Mason, of Gunston Hall. Mr. Mason, who was 
a man of note in his day, was long a member of the House 
of Burgesses, and was a judge of the General Court during 
the Revolution. 

At Mr. Mason's death, in 1785, Raspberry Plain passed 
to his distinguished son, Stevens Thomson Mason (1760- 

* See illustration, p. 379. 



378 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

1803), United States senator from Virginia, who married 
Mary, daughter of Robert Armistead, of Louisa County, 
and was the father of Honorable Armistead Thomson 
Mason, of Selma (killed in the famous Mason-McCarty 
duel), General John Thomson Mason, Stevens Thomson 
Mason, who died young, and a bevy of daughters celebrated 
for their beauty and charm. These Mason girls were belles 
in Washington society when they were guests of the Vir- 
ginia presidents at the White House, and drove in a coach 




RASP15LRRY PLAIN', LOUDOUN COUNTY 



and four with out-riders in livery. They drew many of 
the most eligible beaux of the day to Raspberry Plain, and 
it is said that the round window in the upper hall was a 
favorite place for the girls to " station themselves to watch 
for their cavaliers as they would be descried on their pranc- 
ing horses a long distance up the road." All three of them 
married distinguished men. Mary was the wife of Gov- 
ernor Benjamin Howard, of Missouri; Emily, of Honor- 
able William McCarty; and Catherine, the wife of Post- 



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PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 381 

master General William T. Barry, of President Jackson's 
cabinet. 

Beautiful colored crayon portraits of the Honorable 
and Mrs. Stevens Thomson Mason, by Sharpless, are' 
preserved by their descendants. 

After the Masons' time, Raspberry Plain was closed 
for years, during which it was said to be haunted. 

SELMA 

Selma was built by Honorable Armistead Thomson 
Mason (1787-1819), early in the nineteenth century. It 
has had a grim history. 

Colonel Mason was a man of fine talent and wide popu- 
larity. He served in the War of 1812 as a colonel of the 
cavalry, and, like his father, Stevens Thomson Mason, of 
Raspberry Plain, was United States senator from Virginia. 
On account of a political quarrel he engaged in a duel with 
his near cousin, Colonel John Mason McCarty, so tragic 
that the whole country rang with it. It was fought at 
Bladensburg, Maryland, on February 6, 1819, with mus- 
kets at ten paces. Mason dropped dead at the first fire, 
while McCarty was only saved by an accident. 

Mason had a young and devoted wife, with one child, 
a pretty little boy but a few months old. McCarty was a 
brilliant young lawyer of the same county, and he was soon 
to be married to the lovely Lucinda Lee. 

After the duel McCarty wrote to her, relating what he 
had done, giving her a week for reflection, and asking her 
to tell him at the end of that time whether she would marry 
him after what had happened. She related long afterward 
the agony of that week, how she knelt in despair at her 
mother's feet and asked her to decide; how the old lady 
could only advise her to follow her own heart ; how at last 
she sent a note to her lover, inviting him to call. 

After their marriage they settled near Selma, where 
the young widow of Mason lived with her little boy, and to 



382 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

them also was born an only son, very promising, in whom 
they took great pride. 

Though living but a few miles apart, however, the two 
families, the Masons and McCartys, never renewed their 
acquaintance or spoke to each other. There was a natural 
avoidance, nothing more. Young McCarty was a frequent 
sportsman, but in all his gunning was never known to set 
his foot on part of the Mason estate, whatever the luck it 
might promise. One fatal day, however, in following the 
flight of game, he mounted a fence, which formed the 
boundary of the Mason property, and attempted to load 
in this position. His attention diverted by the movements 
of the birds or the dogs, he let slip his gun, which exploded 
and sent the ramrod through his head. He fell on the 
Mason side, which he had avoided all his life, upon the 
ground which he was to press only in death. And to make 
the dramatic situation complete Stevens Mason at that 
moment came riding by, and the dying youth was carried 
to Raspberry Plain, the birthplace of his father's victim, 
and laid dead in the hall. This was almost the death-blow 
to the parents of young McCarty. His bereaved father, 
the slayer of Senator Mason, became erratic and for much 
of the time a wanderer. He would leave his home without 
a word, and be gone for years, his own wife not knowing 
where; and then would as suddenly reappear, unkempt 
and haggard, with long hair on his shoulders and beard 
descending to his waist. 

Selma was inherited by Stevens Thomson Mason, Jr., 
whose infancy was surrounded with so much that was 
tragic. At twenty-one he was a rich, attractive and dash- 
ing young fellow, often seen driving a handsome pair of 
horses tandem through the streets of Leesburg, but he 
seemed to have been born for disaster. A too generous 
expenditure of his fortunes brought reverses which forced 
him to sell Selma, after which he joined the army, and 
while serving as a captain in the Mexican War was mortally 
wounded. 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 383 

OAK HILL 

Oak Hill, in Fauquier County, is interesting as the 
home in which Chief Justice John Marshall (1755-1835) 
grew to manhood. A house of seven rooms, which is a 
part of the present homestead, was built here, in 1773, by 
Judge Marshall's father, Colonel Thomas Marshall (1730- 
1802) , a gallant officer in the Revolution, and was given by 
him to his son John. The great Chief Justice owned Oak 
Hill the rest of his life and frequently occupied it. At 
his death it passed to his eldest son, Thomas Marshall, who 
married Margaret, daughter of Fielding Lewis, of Wey- 
anoke, on James River. 




OAK HILL, FAUQUIER COUNTY 

Thomas Marshall was a master of arts of Princeton 
University and member of the Virginia Convention of 
1829. He added to the Oak Hill house five large rooms 
and two halls, besides basement rooms. The estate de- 
scended to his eldest son, John Marshall, many years a 
member of the Virginia Legislature, who sold it to his 
brother Thomas Marshall, colonel in the Confederate 
Army, who was killed at the Battle of Winchester, 
November 12, 1864. After his death the old homestead 



384 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

was sold and since it passed from the Marshall family has 
had several owners. It is now the property of Mr. T. M. 
Maddox. 

GORDONSDALE * 

Reverend John Scott (1747-1785) led an adventurous 
life for a clergyman. 1 He went to Scotland on account 
of having been one of the participants, though not a prin- 
cipal, in a fatal duel. There he took the degree of master 
of arts in King's College, Aberdeen, and soon after his 
graduation married Elizabeth, daughter of Professor 
Thomas Gordon of that institution. At the beginning of 
the Revolution he was minister in charge of a church in 
Maryland, but was arrested and tried for remaining loyal 
to the Mother Country. After that he retired to his planta- 
tion in Fauquier County, Virginia, which he named Gor- 
donsdale, in honor of his wife. 

One of Mr. Scott's sons, Robert Eden Scott (1769- 
1811), was a professor at Aberdeen, another, Judge John 
Scott ( 1781-1850) , was a distinguished lawyer in Virginia. 
After her husband's death Mrs. Scott sold her home to her 
son-in-law, Dr. Chandler Peyton, who died in 1827, leaving 
Gordonsdale to his son Dr. Robert E. Peyton, who sold it, 
in 1868, to General Benjamin Huger, of the Confederate 
Army. 

FARLEY 

One of the oldest homesteads in the Piedmont section 
is Farley, in Culpeper County, which was built more than 
a century ago by Carter Beverley but was soon after bought 
by William Champe Carter, son of Colonel Edward 
Carter, of Blenheim, Albemarle County, who was a grand- 
son of Robert (" King") Carter. Mr. Carter gave the 
place the name of Farley in honor of his wife, who was his 

* See illustration at head of Preface. 

1 An interesting account of the Reverend John Scott and his 
descendants is given in Hayden, Virginia Genealogies, p. 603 
et seq. 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 385 

cousin, Maria Champe Farley, daughter of James Parke 
Farley and his wife, Elizabeth Hill Byrd, daughter of 
Honorable William Byrd III, of Westover, and also 
descended, in the fifth generation, from Robert (" King ") 
Carter. 

Elizabeth Hill Farley Carter, the only daughter of 
the Carters of Farley, married Colonel Samuel Storrow, 
of the United States Army, and she and her husband made 
their home at Farley during her father's lifetime, and after- 
ward. In 1836 her husband died and she and her children 
continued to live at Farley until about 1842, when it was 
sold, and was long the home of Dr. W. A. Wellford and 
his wife, who was Miss Corbin. The Wellfords finally sold 
it to Mr. Franklin Stearns. 

The Farley estate consists of a goodly number of fertile 
acres and a commodious mansion situated among fine old 
trees, and commanding an extensive view. The rooms are 
spacious and there is a great central hall where in the olden 
days (says one who knew the place well) " many danced 
joyfully to the music of old Uncle Jim's fiddle." 

MONTPELIER 

James Madison, like other Virginians who were presi- 
dents of the United States, was fortunate in his home. 
Montpelier with its ample, and at the same time har- 
monious, proportions, its lovely grounds and horseshoe- 
shaped terraced garden, and, beyond, its superb view of 
the Blue Ridge, is in both architecture and situation the 
rival of Oak Hill, President Monroe's home in Loudoun. 
The estate was originally a large one, President Madison's 
father owning at the close of the Revolution 7000 to 8000 
acres of land. The house at first consisted of only the 
central portion, built about 1760, by James Madison, Sr., 
but was afterward brought to its present imposing size 
and appearance. The principal improvements were made 
in 1809, after designs by William Thornton, architect of 

2.5 



386 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

the Capitol at Washington, while Latrobe had a hand in 
still later improvements, which include the wings. 

President Madison was born while his mother was on 
a visit to her parents, at Port Conway, King George 
County, but grew up and spent his life (except when called 
away by official duties) at Montpelier. In 1794 he married, 
in Philadelphia, a beautiful Quakeress — a widow — Mis- 
tress Dorothea Payne Todd. Though during her girlhood 
and earlier married life she had known only the habits and 
customs of the prim society with which her family was 
identified, it was in Virginia, as mistress of the heart and 
home of one of the most distinguished men of the day, that 
Dolly Madison, the sprightly, the lovable, found her true 
sphere. She had, added to gifts of mind and character, 
remarkable social talent. In the words of one who knew 
her: " She never forgot a name she had once heard nor a 
face she had once seen, nor the personal circumstances 
connected with every individual of her acquaintance. Her 
quick recognition of persons ; her recurrence to their pecul- 
iar interests produced the gratifying impression in each 
and all of those who conversed with her that they were 
especial objects of regard." Says the same writer: " Her 
snuffbox had a magic influence — for who could partake 
of its contents offered in a manner so gracious and retain 
a feeling inimical to its owner." As Madison himself was 
a genial host and delightful talker it is easy to imagine 
how charming must have been the life at fair Montpelier, 
which, like so many Virginia homes, was a " seat of hos- 
pitality." 

One wing of the house was occupied by the mother of 
the president, and there the venerable dame, attended by 
her old family servants, constantly visited by her children 
and grandchildren and tenderly ministered to by her 
daughter-in-law, the engaging " Dolly," preserved the cus- 
toms and habits of an earlier generation. One who visited 
her there draws a striking picture of her at the age of 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 389 

ninety-seven, placidly enjoying the evening of her long 
life and " always busy," either knitting or reading from her 
favorite books — " large, dark and worn quartos and folios 
of most venerable appearance," which were kept upon a 
table by her side. 

Much has been said and written about the mother of 
Washington; truly does it seem that this mother of 
Madison must have been a woman worth -knowing in her 
time and keeping in remembrance after. 

When he was about sixty-six years old, Madison retired 
from public life and spent his last nineteen years in the 
enjoyment of his country home, happy in his agricultural 
interests, his books, his friends, and his correspondence. 
He and Jefferson were intimate friends, and Monticello 
and Montpelier were not too far apart for their masters 
to exchange frequent visits. 

Madison died at Montpelier on June 28, 1836, aged 
eighty-five, and he and his wife are buried there, side by 
side. A handsome shaft, erected by his admirers, marks 
the spot. 

Montpelier is now the home of Mr. William Dnpont, 
formerly of Delaware, who has added another story to the 
wings and adorned the terraced gardens with statuary and 
a variety of rare and beautiful shrubs and flowers. 

ROCKLANDS 

The tract of land on which Rocklands is located was 
purchased about the year 1845, by Edmund Henshaw, who 
during his ownership erected a dwelling which was later 
enlarged by Barton H. Haxall, who acquired the estate 
by purchase, in 1851. At Mr. Haxall' s death, in 1882, 
an Englishman by the name of Moorwood bought the 
property and made his residence there for several years, 
finally disposing of Rocklands to Thomas Atkinson, the 
present owner. 

A year or two after Mr. Atkinson purchased the estate, 
.the original dwelling was totally destroyed by fire, and 



390 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

the present handsome house was built by him on the site 
of the old one. The picture shown here is of the original 
dwelling. 




ROCKLANDS, ORANGE COUNTY 

FRASCATI 

Frascati, the beautiful home of Judge Philip Pendleton 
Barbour (1783-1841), speaker of the United States 
House of Representatives and justice of the United States 
Supreme Court, was built some time before 1830 by the 
same workmen who had been employed in erecting the 
buildings for the University of Virginia. 

After Judge Barbour's death Frascati changed owners 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 391 

many times. For years before the War between the States 
it was the home of Colonel James Magruder, whose sons, 
bred at Frascati, were famous for bravery in the Confed- 




FRASCATI, ORANGE COUNTY 



erate Army. Three of these five gallant Magruder boys 
were killed in battle, while the other two were desperately 
wounded. The husband of their sister was also killed in 
battle. 2 

In more recent times Frascati was long the home of 
Mrs. William H. Lyne. Its present master is Mr. A. D. 
Irving, a kinsman of Washington Irving. 

BARBOURSVILLE 

In a picturesque state of ruin, its walls and its columns 
draped with ivy, stands Barboursville,* once the handsomest 
home in Orange County. Jefferson is said to have helped 
to plan the house, which was built in 1822, by his friend 
James Barbour (1775-1842), governor of Virginia, and 
United States senator. In outward appearance it was 
much like Frascati, the home of Governor Barbour's 



2 Scott, History of Orange County, p. 156. 
* See illustration, p. 393. 



392 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

brother, Judge Philip Pendleton Barbour; but the interior 
was more ambitious. The stately central hall was six- 
sided and was capped above the second story by a dome. 
A door from the hall led to the drawing-room, a large and 
beautiful apartment, octagonal in shape, with windows 
opening upon a pillared portico. 

The gardens at both B arbours ville and Frascati were 
originally surrounded by serpentine walls like those at the 
University of Virginia and the one at Barboursville still 
remains. 

After Governor Barbour's death his home passed to his 
son, Mr. Johnson Barbour, a gentleman famous for schol- 
arship and wit, who kept up Barboursville's traditions for 
cultivation, refinement and hospitality. The destruction 
of such a home is tragedy. It burned down on Christmas 
Dav, 1884. 

KESWICK 

Keswick on its green hill, with its shady trees, its box- 
walks and its charming old garden, was originally part of 
the Castle Hill estate in Albemarle County and was the in- 
heritance of Jane Frances Walker, eldest child of Honor- 
able Francis Walker (1764-1806), of Castle Hill. The 
plantation was first called Turkey Hill and could boast of 
thirty-seven hundred acres. Its mistress gave her hand in 
marriage at the age of sixteen years to Doctor Mann Page, 
who, after thirty-five years of married life, died at Keswick, 
in 1850 — his wife surviving him until 1873. The Mann 
Pages were succeeded in their ownership of the estate by 
their son Doctor Thomas Walker Page, who died there in 
1887, leaving children who still make their home at Keswick. 
Another son of Doctor Mann and Jane (Walker) Page 
was Doctor Richard Charming Moore Page, of New York, 
the historian of the Page family. Doctor Page has given 
an interesting account of the long series of tutors who 
taught at Keswick, which eventually became the site of a 
noted boarding school conducted by two of Thomas Walker 
Page's sons, James Morris and Thomas Walker Page, Jr. 




BARBOl'HSVII.LK, ORANGE COUNTY 




PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 395 

EDGE HILL 

In the year 1735, William Randolph, of Tuckahoe, 
patented twenty-four hundred acres of land in Albemarle 
County. Though he continued to live at Tuckahoe, in 
Goochland, his holdings in Albemarle had, as will be seen, 
an interesting effect upon the Randolph family history. 

Over and over again in Virginia, adjoining lands have 
been responsible for the joining of hands. About 1770 
Thomas Mann Randolph, Senior (1741-1793), of Tucka- 
hoe, a wealthy widower, and his son Thomas Mann 
Randolph, Junior (1768-1828), were both numbered 
among the eligible beaux (or " catches," as the popular 
phrase would have expressed it) of Virginia. The 
Randolph estate in Albemarle lay between Belmont, the 
Harvie estate, and Monticello, the Jefferson estate; and 
at both Belmont and Monticello was a lovely young daugh- 
ter. What more natural than that ere long dusky pro- 
ficients in the dance music of the good old times were tun- 
ing their fiddles for two weddings: Thomas Mann 
Randolph, the father, and the witty Gabriella Harvie mak- 
ing one pair; and Thomas Mann Randolph, the son, and 
the gentle Martha Jefferson, the other. The elder bride- 
groom took his bride to Tuckahoe and gave the Albemarle 
plantation to his son, who named it Edge Hill, and built 
upon it a commodious frame homestead. 

The young master of Edge Hill became one of the 
leading men of his time. He represented his district in 
Congress, and in 1818 became governor of Virginia. His 
own prominence, and his wife's, together with their per- 
sonal charm, made Edge Hill a resort for distinguished 
visitors second only to Monticello. 

Upon Governor Randolph's death the estate passed to 
his son, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, who, in 1828, re- 
moved the old house to the rear and built, upon the original 
site, the present brick mansion. After his death Edge Hill 
became famous as a boarding school which was opened by 
his widow, Mrs. Jane (Nicholas) Randolph, and carried 



396 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

on many years after her time by her daughters, Misses 
Mary and Sarah Randolph. It was interrupted by the 
War between the States, but was reopened in 1869 and 
continued until 1896, when Edge Hill passed from the 
Randolph family, and became once more a private 
residence. 

The house is filled with relics of Thomas Jefferson. 
Its situation in view of the Blue Ridge, its lovely lawn 
and gardens, and its park of great forest trees, make the 
old home of Jefferson's daughter as beautiful as it is in- 
teresting. 

CASTLE HILL AND BELVOIR 

Doctor Thomas Walker (1715-1794), a descendant of 
Captain Thomas Walker, of Gloucester County, who came 
to Virginia, about 1650, from Staffordshire, England," was 
a prominent physician in his day, interested in politics and 
exploration, an influential member of the House of Bur- 
gesses, the Revolutionary Conventions and the Committee 
of Safety, several times Virginia's commissioner to effect 
treaties with the Indians, commissary under Washington 
in the French and Indian War, and probably the first white 
man who ever entered the territory which is now the State 
of Kentucky. In 1750 Doctor Walker went to the " west- 
ern country " and during this expedition named Cumber- 
land gap and river in honor of the Duke of Cumberland. 
It is said that Doctor Walker introduced the celebrated 
aj)ple, the Albemarle pippin, into Albemarle County from 
New York. He was the guardian of Thomas Jefferson 
and an intimate friend of both Washington and Jefferson. 

A descendant of Doctor Walker writes in a sketch of 
the Walker family: "In 1765 Doctor Walker built the 
house at Castle Hill, which has become a well-known place 
to Virginians. The small panes of glass and the brass 
door-locks, which may still be seen in the venerable build- 



3 Walker family : Watson's, Some Notable Families of America, 
p. 86 et seq. 




CASTLE HILL, ALBEMARLE COUNTY 




STARTING THE HUNT 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 399 

ing, were brought from London, and the quaint old hall, 
which is still the centre of a graceful hospitality, has echoed 
to the violin of Jefferson and the step of Madison in the 
merry dance. 

" Here five men, either presidents or presidents-to-be, 
have been entertained as familiar friends or relatives, while 
many others, notable at home and abroad, have met here in 
charming companionship." 

Doctor Walker married first, in 1741, Mildred, widow 
of Nicholas Meriwether, and daughter of Colonel Francis 




BELVOIR, ALBEMARLE COUNTY 

and Mary (Taliaferro) Thornton, of Snow Creek, Caro- 
line County. His second wife was Elizabeth Thornton, 
a sister of his first wife. His children were all by the first 
wife. 

Doctor Walker died November 19, 1794, leaving many 
descendants. His eldest son, Honorable John Walker 
(1744-1809), who was a member of General Washing- 
ton's staff during the Revolutionary War and United 
States senator from Virginia, married Elizabeth, daughter 
of Bernard and Catherine (Spotswood) Moore, and 



400 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

settled at Bel voir, which was destroyed by fire in 1836. 
Their only child, Mildred (1764-1784), married Honor- 
able Francis Kinloch, of South Carolina, and her only 
child, Eliza Kinloch, married Honorable Hugh Nelson 
(1768-1836). Belvoir descended to Mrs. Nelson and she 
and her husband made their home there. This estate was 
about three miles southeast of Castle Hill. The first resi- 
dence there was built by Robert Lewis, nearer the moun- 
tain than the later house; but has long since disappeared. 
Colonel John Walker built a house at Belvoir, which was 
afterwards removed to another location. About 1790 
Mr. Walker built a second house, which was destroyed 
by fire, in 1836, but a ground plan thereof is preserved 
by an illustration in Page's Page Family. In the rear 
was an ornamental garden and behind that the kitchen 
garden. In front was a splendid grove of poplars and 
oaks. After the death of Hugh Nelson, the estate was 
divided and the house part fell to the youngest son, Dr. 
Robert W. Nelson. He sold it in 1846 to D. C, Carver. 

The following quaint correspondence passed between 
Doctor Thomas Walker and Bernard Moore a short time 
before the marriage of their children. 

(The father of John Walker to the father of Elizabeth 

Moore:) 

May 27th, 1764. 
Dear Sir : 

My son Mr. John Walker, having informed me of his intention 
to pay his addresses to your daughter Elizabeth, if he should be 
agreeable to yourself, lady and daughter, it may not be amiss to 
inform you what I feel myself able to afford for their support in 
case of an union. My affairs are in an uncertain state; but I will 
promise one thousand pounds, to be paid in 1766, and the further 
sum of two thousand I promise to give him ; but the uncertainty 
of my present affairs prevent my fixing on a time of payment, the 
above sums are all to be in money or lands and other effects, at 
the option of my said son John Walker. 

I am, sir, your humble servant, 

Thomas Walker. 
Col. Bernard Moore, Esqr., 
in Kino; William. 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 401 

(The father of Elizabeth Moore to the father of John 
Walker:) 

May 28th 176-k 
Dear Sir : 

Your son, Mr. John Walker applied to me for leave to make 
his addresses to my daughter Elizabeth. I gave him leave and told 
him at the same time that ray affairs were in such a state that it 
was not in my power to pay him all the money this year that I 
intended to give my daughter provided he succeeded, but would 
give him five hundred pounds more as soon after as I could raise 
or get the money ; which sums you may depend I will most punctu- 
ally pay to him. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

Bernard Moore. 
To Thomas Walker, 

Castle Hill, Albemarle County, Ya. 

Honorable Francis Walker (1764-1806), the youngest 
son of Doctor Thomas Walker, married Jane Byrd Nelson, 
of Yorktown. He was a member of Congress and inherited 
Castle Hill. Judith Page Walker (1802-1882), the 
daughter of Francis and Jane Byrd Walker, married 
Honorable William Cabell Rives (1793-1868), who held 
many high offices in the State. Mr. and Mrs. Rives 
made their home at Castle Hill and were succeeded there 
by their son Alfred Landon Rives, who married Miss Sadie 
McMurdo and were the parents of the author Amelie 
Rives (Princess Troubetzkoy) , who has made the place 
famous in recent years. 

An interesting story in connection with Castle Hill is 
that of a visit — for quite other than friendly purposes — 
paid there in 1781, by Colonel Tarleton. He was on his 
way to Charlottesville to make capture of the Assembly of 
Virginia and state officers who were gathered there. This 
attempt was frustrated by the famous ride of gallant Jack 
Jouett, but Tarleton, turning aside to make capture of 
some men of prominence at Castle Hill and Belvoir, found 
at the former Colonel John Syme — the half brother of 
Patrick Henry — and Judge Peter Lyons. " These gentle- 

26 



402 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

men were surprised in their beds," says Mr. William Wirt 
Henry, in his Life of Patrick Henry, and it is related, as 
an instance of Tarleton's humor, that when Colonel Syme, 
who was remarkably homely, was brought from his bed- 
room undressed, and with dishevelled hair, the celebrated 
cavalryman threw himself into the attitude of Hamlet 
upon discovering his father's ghost, and exclaimed: 

Angels and ministers of grace, defend us ! 

Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damned? 

MONTICELLO 

Monticello was not only the home but the creation of 
Thomas Jefferson. That versatile genius, who seems to 
have excelled in everything he undertook, save playing 
the violin, was as great an architect of houses as of States, 
and Monticello and the University of Virginia ( four miles 
away) are poems in brick and mortar. Standing upon a 
plain at the top of a high hill, from which it takes its name, 
Monticello, or " little mountain," looks upon a wide stretch 
of fertile country through which winds the Rivanna River, 
and beyond, an unbroken view of the Blue Ridge for one 
hundred and fifty miles. 

The mansion is in Jefferson's favorite classic style of 
architecture, with Doric porticoes and a dome whose win- 
dows flood the great hall below with light. This hall is 
thirty feet square, with graceful winding stairways leading 
to the upper stories. In Jefferson's day it was a sort of 
museum. William Wirt tells us that along one side of it 
were specimens of sculpture set in such order as to show 
the progress of that art " from the first rude attempts of 
the aborigines of our country " to a bust of Jefferson him- 
self, by Carracci. On the other was displayed a vast col- 
lection of specimens of the Indian art — their pottery, 
weapons, ornaments, etc. ; on another, the fossil productions 
of our country. In other parts of the house, says Wirt, 
were hung valuable paintings from all countries and all 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 403 

ages, and portraits of distinguished men, both of Europe 
and America, and medallions and engravings in endless 
profusion. 

The drawing-room in which Jefferson entertained the 
many guests that flocked to Monticello is finished with 
inlaid satin-wood and rose-wood, with richly-carved 
cornices, and the doors are of solid mahogany. It is said 
that Jefferson sometimes entertained as many as fifty 
guests at one time at Monticello. 

The bed-chambers at Monticello are hexagonal in 
shape. Jefferson's arrangement of his and his wife's rooms 
was unique. The two apartments were connected by a 
wide arch in which stood, lengthwise, a luxurious bed six 
feet wide, half of which extended into his own room, the 
other half into Mrs. Jefferson's. 

Jefferson was like Washington and Madison in losing 
his heart to a young, fascinating and wealthy widow. Mis- 
tress Martha Skelton was her name, and Jefferson won 
her from many rival suitors, in spite of the fact that his 
wretched performances on the violin played a conspicuous 
part in his wooing. Indeed, it is said that the lady's seem- 
ing enjoyment of these performances convinced Jeffer- 
son's rivals of the depth of her devotion to him and the 
hopelessness of their own and all other suits. 

The story goes that the distinguished pair of lovers 
made their wedding journey to Monticello in a blinding 
snow-storm, arriving there at two o'clock in the morning. 
The servants were not expecting them and were sleeping 
so soundly that they could not be aroused; so the bridal 
pair had to make the best of spending the night in a one- 
room brick office, wherein the master of Monticello had 
kept bachelor's quarters while superintending the building 
of his mansion. As they had a blazing log-fire and a bottle 
of wine to cheer them after their drive through the storm, 
no doubt the statesman and his bride were enough like 
other young folk to enjoy their adventure. 

The grounds at Monticello are as attractive in their 
own way as the house, with their stretches of greensward 
and their old Lombardy poplars. In the graveyard, which 



404 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

blooms like a garden, lie the mortal remains of Jefferson, 
who died at Monticello, July 4, 1826, and his wife and 
daughters. Over his grave stands a plain obelisk bearing 
the epitaph he wrote for himself: " Here lies buried 
Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Free- 
dom, and Father of the University of Virginia " — a simple 
statement of the three achievements for which he hoped 
to be, and always will be, remembered. 

In the grave with Jefferson lies the body of a friend 
of his boyhood. When they were children he and this 
friend agreed to be buried together, the one who died last 
to see to it that the compact was fulfilled. The other boy 
died at the age of seventeen, and when Jefferson chose his 
own burial place, he had the body of his friend removed 
thither, and so the two friends sleep in one grave to-day. 

Jefferson was a scientific farmer. Before his time the 
plow was an exceedingly primitive implement and he im- 
proved it for the benefit of his own lands. Monticello plan- 
tation was a busy place; wrought iron nails were made, 
and cloth woven there, and the ruins of a flour mill may 
still be seen. 

Jefferson was a close observer of nature and the 
weather, and took pains to register the state of both ther- 
mometer and barometer every day throughout his life. 
Just above the main entrance at Monticello he constructed 
an ingenious clock with two faces, one inside and one out- 
side of the hall. This clock marked the days of the week 
as well as the hours, and by means of an arrow connected 
with a weather-vane on the top of the house showed the 
direction of the wind. 

During the Revolution Tarleton's cavalry raided 
Monticello in an attempt to take Jefferson captive. 
Jefferson had received a timely warning, however, and 
escaping through an underground passage, still to be seen 
at Monticello, rode off on horseback to Colonel Edward 
Carter's plantation, about sixty miles distant, to which he 
had already hurried his wife and children. Some of the 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 405 

members of the Assembly (which had been in session at 
Charlottesville) were less fortunate — seven of them falling 
into Tarleton's hands at Castle Hill, then the home of 
Doctor Thomas Walker. 

Monticello is now the property and home of Mr. Jef- 
ferson Levy. 

THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 

President Madison, writing of Thomas Jefferson, in 
1826, said: " The University of Virginia, as a temple 
dedicated to science and liberty, was after his retirement 
from the political sphere the object nearest his heart, and 
so continued to the close of his life. His devotion to it was 
intense and his exertions unceasing. It bears the stamp 
of his genius and will be a noble monument to his fame." 

Says Professor Herbert B. Adams, in a monograph 
upon this " noblest work of Jefferson's life " : " The build- 
ings of the University of Virginia are Jefferson's thoughts 
materialized in artistic form." 

It would seem to one looking upon this " academical 
village " with its velvet lawns bordered by the white colon- 
nades of the dormitories, the pillars and pediments of the 
professors' homes, and, dominating all, the dome and the 
lofty columns of the Rotunda, that these thoughts of Jef- 
ferson's so beautifully materialized here in the heart of 
Virginia, with her blue mountains for a background, were 
all of the " glory that was Greece and the grandeur that 
was Rome." 

Jefferson's idea was to make the university an ever- 
present object-lesson to the students in correct principles 
of the builder's art. He chose the poetic, classic form and 
designed the porticoes and colonnades to illustrate the 
Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders of architecture. The 
white-pillared village is built around a stretch of level 
green lawn 1000 feet long and 200 feet wide. Along the 
east and west sides stand at intervals the homes of the 
professors, shaded by ancient trees and connected by the 
long, low, colonnaded dormitories, while on the terrace 



406 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

across the north end gleams the Rotunda — the glory of 
the old university. Across the south end of the lawn now 
stands the new academic building. 

Behind the buildings fronting upon the " East Lawn " 
and " West Lawn " lie the gardens, separated by narrow 
walks and enclosed by the famous serpentine walls, which 
were designed by Jefferson and are a unique feature of 
the university. These high, zigzag walls, one brick thick, 
are wonderfully picturesque, especially in summer when 
festooned with greenery. Beyond the gardens at either 
side, and parallel with the buildings on the lawn, stands a 
row of other dormitories, opening on brick arcades. These 
are known as " East Range " and " West Range." 

The University of Virginia was the passion of the later 
years of Jefferson's life. He not only drew the plans for 
the buildings but personally superintended their con- 
struction, supervising the minutest details and even design- 
ing tools for the workmen and showing them how to use 
them. Two " Italian artists " were brought over to cut 
the capitals of the columns, and when it was found that 
Virginia stone was unsuitable for this purpose a number 
of beautifully chiselled white marble capitals were imported 
from Italy ; but most of the work was done on the ground 
by Jefferson's own workmen, trained by him. 

In August, 1820, he wrote to John Adams, from Monti- 
cello: " Our University, four miles distant, gives me fre- 
quent exercise, as I direct its architecture." 

Professor Herbert B. Adams, in his sketch of the uni- 
versity, already quoted, writes as follows: 

" A visitor pacing slowly through these monastic colon- 
nades extending along two sides of the great quadrangle 
campus of the University of Virginia will receive a strange 
variety of impressions from the extraordinary architectural 
combinations which greet his wandering eyes. The arcades 
themselves from which open directly the single-chambered 
rooms of the students, remind one of cloistered walks in 
some ancient monastery. These student-rooms are like 
monkish-cells. But wonderful facades are those which 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 409 

front the professors' houses, or pavilions. They reproduce 
classic styles of architecture. The shadows of remote an- 
tiquity are cast upon those beautiful grassy lawns, which 
foi m the campus. 

" From Jefferson's drawings we learn what is well 
nigh forgotten, that these varying types of classical archi- 
tecture were copied from well-known Roman buildings 
pictured by Palladio in his great work on architecture. 
There, in the theatre of Marcellus, dwells the household of 
Professor Minor. Yonder are reminders of the baths of 
Diocletian, the baths of Caracalla and the temple of For- 
tuna Virillis. And there at the upper or northern end of 
the quadrangle, stands the Roman Pantheon, the temple 
of all the gods, reduced to one-third of its original size, 
but still majestic and imjjosing. This building with its 
Rotunda, upon which Jefferson spent almost as much pains 
as Michael Angelo did upon the dome of St. Peter's, is 
used for the library and for various lecture halls. Younff 
people dance merrily under the stately dome at the end of 
the academic year. The young monks then escape from 
their cells into the modern social world. How charmingly 
old Rome, mediaeval Europe and modern America blend 
together before the very eyes of young Virginia! " 

In 1895 news that the university was on fire filled the 
heart of every son and daughter of Virginia within the 
bounds of the old commonwealth, and beyond, with grief. 
A large building at the rear of the Rotunda, known as 
the Annex, was destroyed and the Rotunda itself burnt 
out, with the valuable collections of books and manuscripts 
in the library. 

The loss was at first felt to be irreparable, but great 
compensation has been found in the love and loyalty to 
Virginia's greatest institute which it brought out. Gifts 
for the restoration poured in from every direction and soon 
the rebuilt Rotunda stood in all its wonted beauty at the 
head of the lawn, while in place of the Annex a group of 
fire-proof, well equipped, new buildings, architecturally 
harmonious with the old ones, provided a thoroughly up- 



410 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

to-date Physical Laboratory, Mechanical Laboratory, and 
Public Hall. 

The room occupied by Edgar Allan Poe while a stu- 
dent at the university is preserved as a Poe museum and 
a meeting place of " The Raven Society." 

FARMINGTON 

A stately mansion, broad acres clothed with the green 
of blue grass, corn and wheat, and a splendid view of the 
Blue Ridge combine to make Farmington, some three miles 
from the University of Virginia, a most attractive home. 




FARMINGTON, ALBEMARLE COUNTY 



The house was designed by Thomas Jefferson for and at 
the request of his friend, Mr. George Divers, and is said 
to be a reproduction of a country house seen by Jefferson 
when abroad. It is probably over a hundred years old, 
as Mr. Divers bought the plantation in 1788. 

Upon the death of Mr. Divers, Farmington passed by 
inheritance to Mrs. Isaac White, who sold it to Mr. John 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 411 

C. Carter. In 1853 it was again sold to General Bernard 
Peyton, who, it is said, expended $30,000.00 in improve- 
ments upon the house and plantation. In I860 Mr. Joseph 
Miller, a wealthy and accomplished English gentleman, 
on a visit to Virginia was so much pleased with Farmington 
that he bought it and presented it to his sister, Mrs. Mary 
Ann Harper, who bequeathed it to her son, Mr. Warner 
Wood. 

REDLANDS 

Redlands, just east of Carter's Bridge, Albemarle, was 
the home of Robert Carter, son of Edward Carter of Blen- 




REDLANDS, ALBEMARLE COUNTY 

heim. He died there, in 1810. His son Robert H. Carter, 
who inherited the place, married Margaret Smith, a grand- 
daughter of Governor Nicholas. 

PENN PARK 

Penn Park is one of the oldest homesteads in Albemarle 
County. It was bought by Doctor George Gilmer and 
was, from 1777 to 1800, the home of the Gilmer family. 



412 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Doctor Gilmer died at Penn Park in 1796, and after the 
death of his wife, in 1800, the estate was sold and has since 
had various owners. 

The Gilmers were people of marked refinement and 
culture. Francis W. Gilmer, Doctor Gilmer's son, was 
a protege of Thomas Jefferson's. He was the first pro- 
fessor of Latin in the University of Virginia and was 
entrusted with the selection of the members of the first 
faculty of that institution. 

A distinguished grandson of Doctor Gilmer was the 
Honorable Thomas Walker Gilmer, governor of Virginia 
and secretary of the navy, who was killed by an explosion 
on board the United States ship Princeton in 1844. 

Doctor Gilmer's daughter Mildred became the first 
wife of Honorable William Wirt, and Kennedy in his life 
of Mr. Wirt charmingly describes the life at Penn Park 
in earlv days. 

MONTICOLA 

Mbnticola, the home of Miss Emily M. Nolting, is 
located near Howardsville, in Albemarle County. The 
dwelling, situated on the high land overlooking the 
broad and fertile valley of James River, commands an ex- 
tended view over three counties — Albemarle, Nelson and 
Buckingham — with the hazy outline of the Blue Ridge 
Mountains in the background. It was built prior to the 
War between the States by Mr. D. J. Hartsook, who, in 
1887, sold it to "Sir. E. O. Nolting, of Richmond, Virginia, 
the father of its present owner. 

In style of architecture the main house, built of brick, 
with columns in front of its wide porch, and with two 
" offices," one on either side to correspond, resembles many 
of the ante-bellum country homes in Piedmont, Virginia, 
showing in its design the impress of Jeff ersonian influence. 

During the devastating raids of General Sheridan, 
" Monticola " was occupied by him as headquarters. A 
large square cut in the flooring of an upper bedroom marks 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 413 

the place where valuables were hid at that time to save 
them from pillage. 

The plantation itself dates back to Revolutionary times, 
as evidenced by a strip of road near the house said to have 
been surveyed by General Washington himself, and con- 
stituting a part of the Post Road connecting Lynchburg 




MONTICOLA, ALBEMARLE COUNTY 

with Richmond, other links of which appear in the inter- 
vening counties. 

The original residence, still standing on this estate, was 
built by a Mr. Fowle in Colonial days, its hand-wrought 
nails, glazed bricks and hand-carved mantels testifying to 
this fact, and tradition has it that General Washington 
lodged there. 

ENNISCORTHY 

John Coles I came from Ireland to Virginia during 
the eighteenth century. He was an early settler in Rich- 
mond Town and, tradition has it, built one of the first 
houses there. He was senior warden of the parish, and 
dying in Richmond in 1747 was buried in the chancel of 



414 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

old St. John's Church. William Coles, a younger brother 
of John, and the grandfather of " Dolly Madison," fol- 
lowed his brother to Virginia and settled in Hanover 
County, where he built " Coles Hill." 

John Coles I was a man of ample means and owning 
an estate in what is now Albemarle County (then Gooch- 
land), on the Green Mountain, built a residence there. 
This home he named Enniscorthy after the place of resi- 
dence of his ancestors in Leinster, County Wexford, Ire- 
land. 

John Coles II (who was a colonel of militia during 
the Revolutionary War), son of the first John Coles, in- 
herited Enniscorthy and greatly enlarged the original 
dwelling by the addition of wings, pinions, double pinions, 
and ample piazzas. This house was completely destroyed 
by fire in 1839. 

The present house at Enniscorthy was built in 1850. 

Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. Bennett, the present owners 
of this estate, are great-grandchildren of the second John 
Coles. 

The first burial in the old family burying-ground at 
Enniscorthy was that of a child of John Coles II, in 1772, 
and in its soil also sleep the remains of Elizabeth Travis 
Tucker, born in Jamestown in 1727. She was the mother 
of Elizabeth, wife of John Coles II. 

WOODVILLE 

Woodville was built in 1796, as indicated by a date 
marked on a brick in the front hall fireplace. The house 
was erected by John Coles II, of Enniscorthy, for his 
eldest son Walter, on land which was part of one of the 
second grants from the Colonial authorities in the name of 
the Crown, to the Coles family. This estate has been occu- 
pied by a Walter Coles for four successive generations — 
Walter R. Coles, of St. Louis, being the fourth of that 
name. 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 415 




WOODVILLE, ALBEMARLE COUNTY 




ESTOUTEVILLE, ALBEMARLE COUNTY 



ESTOUTEVILLE 

Estouteville, one of the most beautiful homes in Vir- 
ginia, was built in 1830 by John Coles III. Its name is 
derived from the Count d'Estouteville, an ancestor of the 



410 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Skipwith family from whom Mr. Coles' wife, who was 
Salina, younger daughter of Sir Peyton Skipwith, of 




THE HALL AT ESTOUTEVILLE 



Prestwould, Mecklenburg County, descended. The pres- 
ent owner of this estate is Mr. Virgil P. Randolph. 




TALLWOOD, ALBEMARLE COUNTY 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 417 

TALLWOOD 

Tallwood was built in 1804 by Tucker Coles, son of 
John Coles II, who married Helen, daughter of Sir Peyton 
Skipwith, of Prestwould. This couple lived to celebrate 
their golden wedding in this house. 

Tallwood is now owned by William I). Waters, Esq., 
formerly of St. Louis. 

PLAIN DEALING 

Thomas Staples secured both by patent and purchase 
many hundreds of acres of land in Albemarle County on 
Hudson and Totier Creeks, and, in 1787, sold a tract of 




PLAIN DEALING, ALBEMARLE COUNTY 

five hundred acres of his holdings to Samuel Dyer. The 
lands thus disposed of extended from Hudson to Totier 
and included the site of " Plain Dealing." 

Samuel Dyer 4 was born in Bristol, England, October 
8, 1756, and emigrated to Virginia, in 1770, and served 
throughout the Revolutionary War. For some time he 
was assistant to the agent, or Quartermaster, of the Vir- 
ginia line. Immediately following the war, Mr. Dyer 
became associated with David Ross and Company, of Rich- 
mond, a strong firm of merchants, later withdrawing and 



4 Woods, Albemarle County in Virginia, pp. 185 - 186. 

27 



418 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

forming a partnership with William Hay. About 1786, 
Mr. Dyer disposed of his Richmond interests and went to 
live on his Albemarle estate, which, in course of years, 
grew to be a tract of twenty-two hundred acres. He 
greatly enlarged the old Staples house. 

Samuel Dyer's store at his Albemarle home was " a 
well-known place of business in those days, situated at the 
junction of the roads from Staunton and Charlottesville to 
Scott's landing," and served also the purposes of stage- 
coach office and post-office. 

Dyer's old store is now the vicarage of Christ Church; 
the sign " Plain Dealing," nailed above the door, gave the 
store its name and the name has ever clung to the estate. 

Mr. Dyer was very successful in his mercantile, milling 
and planting ventures and amassed a large fortune. 

In 1786 Samuel Dyer married Celia Bickley, grand- 
daughter of Joseph Bickley, gentleman, of Louisa Comity, 
whose son Sir William Bickley, Baronet, of Louisa County, 
succeeded as 6th Baronet of the family of Bickley of Attle- 
borough Hall, County Norfolk, England. 5 

Samuel Dyer died in 1839, Mrs. Dyer surviving him but 
a year. Their children were (1) Wiliiam Hay Dyer, lieu- 
tenant of the " Richmond Blues," 1812, and magistrate of 
Albemarle County; (2) Major Samuel Dyer, of the " Elite 
(Randolph's) Corps "; (3) Ann, wife of George Robert- 
son; (4) Francis Bickley Dyer, attorney, captain of 
Albemarle company of field artillery, and magistrate; 
(5) Celia Bickley Dyer; (6) Robert Dyer; (7) Elizabeth, 
wife of George M. Payne; (8) John Dyer; (9) Thomas 
Dyer; (10) Mary Jane, wife of George A. Nicholson; 
(11) Martha, wife of Joseph A. Watkins; (12) Sarah 
Dyer. 

During the decade of 1830 most of the children moved 
to Missouri. 

Shortly after Mrs. Dyer's death, in 1840, Bishop 

5 Bickley Family : William and Mary College Quarterly His- 
torical Magazine, v, 28-30 and 12-4-127. 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 419 



J. P. B. Wilmer acquiring the mansion and some one thou- 
sand acres of Plain Dealing estate, and it was while he 
was in possession of the property that General Robert E. 
Lee paid him a visit and informed him of a decision to 
accept the presidency of " Washington College." This 
estate descended to Bishop Wilmer's son, from whom 
Theodore Roosevelt purchased " Pine Knot." " Pine 
Knot " was originally the " cottage " on the " Plain Deal- 
ing " estate. 

MOUNTAIN TOP 

Rock Fish Gap, which takes its name from the spark- 
ling little Rock Fish River, was long one of the main pas- 
sage-ways through the Blue Ridge between Albemarle and 




MOUNTAIN TOP, ALBEMARLE COUNTY 



Augusta Counties, 
a tavern 



In early days there stood in this gap 
for the accommodation of travellers across the 
mountains, and in the parlor of this primitive house of 
entertainment met the commission, of which Jefferson, 
Madison and Monroe were all members, which fixed Char- 
lottesville as the site for the University of Virginia. 



420 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

In later times additions were made to the old tavern, 
and cottages built upon the lawn, and under the name of 
Mountain Top it became a popular summer resort. A 
few years ago it was destroyed by fire and a private resi- 
dence has been built upon its site. 

THE SOUTHSIDE 

The arrangement into chapters, or parts, followed in 
this work has been used partly for convenience, and partly 
on account of the geographical divisions, which have always 
been familiar to Virginians by the names here given them. 
We have now come to the last of these divisions east of the 
mountains. The designation " The Southside " is variously 
understood in Virginia but is perhaps most generally taken 
to mean the section including the counties of Prince Ed- 
ward, Brunswick, Mecklenburg, Charlotte, Lunenburg, 
Halifax and Pittsylvania. 

CLOVER FOREST 

In Prince Edward County, which is separated by the 
Appomattox River from what we have called the " Upper 
James " section, is a unique homestead which was for 
many years the property of the Lancaster family, while 
across the Appomattox is Clover Forest, another quaint 
old home of the Lancasters. Both of these houses were 
built in the early time when the prevailing type of dwell- 
ing was the log-cabin and were doubtless then looked upon 
as considerable mansions. 

Old Clover Forest was the home of John Lancaster, a 
native of Prince Edward County, and a brave Revolution- 
ary soldier. He died on January 28, 1826, and was buried 
at Clover Forest, where sleeps also his wife, Drusilla, 
daughter of Alexander Le Grand, who died on Decem- 
ber 14, 1825, and Lucy Walker, his wife. 

John A. Lancaster (son of John and Drusilla Lan- 
caster) moved to Richmond, in 1813, and later became the 
first president of the first railroad in Virginia — the Rich- 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 421 

mondj Fredericksbwrgh <$ Potomac H. It. He was the 
father of Robert A. Lancaster, a prominent business man 
of Richmond. The latter was the father of Robert A. 
Lancaster, Jr., the author of this book. 

Another interesting personage who was an ancestor of 
the present Lancaster family and who was buried at Clover 




CLOVER FOREST, PKIIVCE EDWARD COUNTY 

Forest in 1824 was Justin Pierre Plnmard, Comte de 
Rieux, who was born in Nantes, France, on March 10, 
1756, was a captain in the Bine Guards of Louis XVI, and 
came to America in 1784, with his wife, Maria Margueretta 
Martini, step-daughter of Philip Mazzei, the well-known 
friend of Thomas Jefferson. 

GREEN HILL 

" Green Hill " was built by Samuel Pannill, a native of 
Orange County, Virginia, born 1770, the 7th child of Wil- 
liam and Ann (Morton) Pannill. On attaining his ma- 
jority, Mr. Pannill was given by his father a large tract 
of land in the Blue Grass region of Kentucky, but becom- 
ing dissatisfied with life " in the back-woods " he sold 



422 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

these lands, returned to Virginia, purchased the " Green 
Hill " estate, in Campbell County, and there continued 
to reside throughout the remainder of his life. 

" Green Hill " is wonderfully situated on an elevated 
plateau, overlooking Staunton River and commanding a 
view for miles of the surrounding country. The estate, 
containing some five thousand acres lying on both sides 
of the river, with its " quarters," barns, shops, store and 
mill, resembled more an industrial village than simply the 
seat of a country gentleman. " Good roads " seem to have 




■RfgW^ 



GREEN HILL, CAMPBELL COUNTY 



been a marked characteristic of the estate for we are told 
by a contemporary that 'some of these, together with the 
many picturesque lanes intersecting them, were paved with 
stone. The large number of slaves owned by the master 
of Green Hill, and resident on the estate, included not only 
ordinary farmhands, but also many valuable mechanics: 
carpenters, stone-masons, shoemakers, blacksmiths, coopers, 
sawyers and millers, besides whom there were men to handle 
the boats in which the flour made at the large mill was 
sent down the river. Among the female contingent were 
seamstresses, weavers and house-servants. 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 423 

Mr. Pannill was as careful in providing for the spiritual 
as for the material welfare of his servants and built for 
their specific use a commodious stone church which will ever 
remain as a proof of his solicitude for the religious life of his 
" black-folk." 

At his death Mr. Pannill was survived by five daughters 
and two sons. Neither of the sons ever married. 

RED HILL 

Red Hill, the last home and the burial-place of Patrick 
Henry, is in Charlotte County, Virginia. He purchased 
it in 1794, and his will contains this clause: " I do give to 
my said wife Dorothea, all my lands at and adjoining my 
dwelling-place called Red Hill, purchased from Booker, 
Watkins and others, out of a tract called Watkins' order, 
to hold during her natural life." 

The name is derived from the red-brown soil in front 
of the house, which is beautifully situated on an elevated 
ridge. Thirty-eight miles to the northwest is Lynchburg, 
the nearest city. To the south, the valley of the Staunton 
stretches its oval form as it winds through, fertile low 
grounds ; while, across the river, the far off hills of Halifax 
rise in bold relief. On the west, on any clear day can be 
seen the Peaks of Otter. The house was a simple wooden 
structure in the days of the patriot. It is said that the only 
addition made by him was the shed kitchen. This was said 
to have been added not on account of need of room, but 
that he might hear the patter of rain on the roof. It has 
had additions which make it a beautiful reproduction of 
Colonial architecture. It has belonged successively to his 
son John Henry, to his grandson, William Wirt Henry, 
and to his great-granddaughter, Mrs. Matthew Bland 
Harrison, its present owner. The estate originally con- 
tained 2920 acres, and was selected on account of its rich 
land and its many springs of pure water. 

During the Revolutionary War, Red Hill was owned 
by Louis Tyler, an uncle of President Tyler. During its 
ownership by Mr. Booker, Powhatan Bouldin, in The Old 



424 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Trunk, tells of a Christmas frolic attended by his aunt 
Mary Bouldin, who rode on horseback twenty miles, 
jumped upon the ground as light as a feather, and was, 
soon on the floor dancing. At this time country life in 
Virginia was very primitive. 

Patrick Henry's fame drew many visitors to his home, 
all of whom he welcomed with gracious hospitality; nor 
was he forgotten by the country he had loved so well. In 
1794 he declined the appointment of United States senator 
offered him by Governor Henry Lee, as also the office of 
governor to which he was elected by the general assembly 
in 1795. Washington offered him the position of secretary 
of state in 1795, and again, that same year, he appointed 
him chief justice; John Adams, in 1799, offered to send 
him as minister to France, but he declined all these posi- 
tions on account of failing health. 

He occupied his last days in the education of his chil- 
dren, to whom he was deeply attached. He engaged for 
them, as tutor, the services of the poet Campbell, who, 
however, was prevented from fulfilling his engagement. 
During the lifetime of their father, two daughters were 
married at Red Hill; Dorothea married her cousin George 
D. Winston, and Martha Catherine, Edward W. Henry, 
another kinsman. 

At the earnest request of Washington, Patrick Henry 
offered himself for the Legislature the last year of his life. 
He made his last great speech at Charlotte Court House, 
March, 1799, and, worn out by the effort, returned to Red 
Hill, never to leave it again. 

On the sixth of June, 1799, surrounded by his devoted 
family and his beloved physician, his great soul took flight. 
No act of his life became him more than his manner of 
leaving it. When informed that the end was at hand, he 
prayed fervently for divine support, then spent his remain- 
ing moments comforting his family and praising the re- 
ligion of Christ, which, never having failed him in life, did 
not fail him in his last need of it. 

In the garden of Red Hill are two oblong slabs of 




OLD NEGRO COUPLE AT CABIN AT RED HILL 

(The man in his boyhood waited on Mrs. Patrick Henry) 




RED HILL, CHARLOTTE COUNTY 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 427 

marble; the inscription on one is " To the memory of 
Patrick Henry. Born May 29, 1736. Died June 6, 1799. 
His fame his best Epitaph"; the other reads, "To the 
memory of Dorothea Dandridge, wife of Patrick Henry. 
Born 1755. Died February 14, 1831." 

OLD NEGRO COUPLE AT RED HILL 

When Patrick Henry purchased Red Hill, a few In- 
dians were still living on what had been their happy hunting 
grounds. One of them, Indian Jim, intermarried with a 
slave, and her grandson, Harrison, was living until a few 
years ago on the land of Ins fathers. He was born in 1815, 
and was sixteen years old when Patrick Henry's widow 
(then Mrs. Edmund Winston) died, February 14, 1831. 
Mrs. Winston had taken him in the house when he was ten 
years old, and he used to carry her key basket, slippers, 
and the yarn for her knitting. In 1831, at the time of the 
death of his mistress, Harrison was coachman for her son, 
John Henry, at whose death, in 1868, Red Hill fell by 
inheritance and purchase to his son, the late William Wirt 
Henry, who provided for the faithful old servant by giv- 
ing him a cabin and a bit of land where he lived through- 
out the remainder of his days, very contented and honored 
alike by white and black. To the last, he took pride in car- 
rying visitors to the grave of the orator, whom he called 
" Marse Patrick." His wife, Milly, was some years older 
than himself and he always lamented that she was of " com- 
mon blood." 

STAUNTON HILL 

A considerable portion of the estate on which stands 
Staunton Hill came into the possession of the Bruce family, 
by whom it is still owned, when a tract of land six hundred 
and eighty-two acres in extent was, in 1801, conveyed to 
James Bruce and his wife, of Woodbourn, Halifax County, 
Virginia, by Isaac Coles and Paul Carrington, Jr., and 
Mildred, his wife. 

Mr. Bruce had removed in early manhood from eastern 



428 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Virginia, where, as records show, his paternal ancestors 
had lived since the beginning of the latter half of the seven- 
teenth century, and perhaps since an earlier date, to South- 
side Virginia. Here he spent the remainder of a long and 
useful life, acquiring one of the most commanding fortunes 
at that time in the possession of any citizen of the United 
States. 

From 1801 to 1884 the original estate of Staunton Hill 
was gradually enlarged by purchase, first by James Bruce, 
and then by his son, Charles Bruce, until it attained its 
present extent of over 5000 acres. A beautiful view of the 




STAUNTON HILL, CHARLOTTE COUNTY 



Staunton River may be had from the front porch of the 
mansion. 

Until 1848 no dwelling house of any size was built on 
the estate, the place being managed by an agent under the 
direction of James Bruce, and later by his son, James Coles 
Bruce of Berry Hill, Halifax County, Virginia, who was 
guardian to his younger brother, Charles Bruce, by whom 
it had been inherited. 

The graduation of Charles Bruce from Harvard Col- 
lege and his engagement to Miss Sarah Seddon, of Freder- 
icksburg (a sister of the Honorable James A. Seddon, 
afterward the Confederate States secretary of war), took 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 429 

place almost simultaneously. Leaving instructions with 
Mr. John E. Johnson, a Virginian architect, and a gradu- 
ate of West Point, for the election of a dwelling house on 
the Staunton Hill estate, Charles Bruce sailed for Europe. 
Returning in 1848, after some months of travel, he was 
married, and eighteen months afterward took possession 
of his new home. 

The building of the house, which at that time was three 
days' journey by carriage from the capital of the State, 
and remote from any town, was attended with much diffi- 
culty. Trained workmen were brought from Philadelphia, 
and the woodwork, marble pillars of the porch and all 
but the rough materials composing the house were trans- 
ported from that city to the North Carolina coast, and 
from thence by " batteaux " up the Roanoke and Staunton 
Rivers. 

The system of agriculture prevailing on this farm was, 
until 1865, similar to that on all large plantations in South- 
side Virginia. Shipping tobacco, corn, wheat and oats 
were the staple crops and were worked by slaves, of whom 
a few still survive at Staunton Hill, living in the cabins 
where their fathers lived before them. 

Staunton Hill, by its remoteness from the scene of the 
chief events of the War between the States, escaped almost 
entirely its minor calamities, such as vandalism and pillage. 
Not anticipating such good fortune or change in the route 
of the Federal Army, however, Mr. and Mrs. Bruce had 
all their silver and valuables secretly carried across the 
Staunton River into Halifax County, where they were 
buried in the midst of a deep wood. Later a part of the 
Federal Army camped in this wood, and finally burned it, 
but without injury, as later events proved, to the hidden 
articles. 

The slaves, of whom there were several hundred on 
the Staunton Hill estate, remained absolutely quiet 
throughout the whole course of the war; one of them, 
remembered affectionately as " Old Israel," proving his 
faithfulness at the risk of his life on one or two occasions. 



430 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

During this period Mrs. Bruce was left alone with her 
little children for months, her husband being absent in the 
army or State Senate, and no other white person save the 
overseer and his family being on the place. Yet she de- 
clared that with " Old Israel " and his wife Phoebe (her 
children's "mammy") within call she had no fear. At 
the close of the war few of the negroes left the place and 
most of those who did so afterward returned. During the 
life of Mr. Charles Bruce the Reverend Morgan Dix, of 
New York, while on a visit to Staunton Hill, asked a 
former slave whether any of the servants ever went away 
from the place and received for a reply, " None ever leaves 
ole Marster 'cept the dead." 

During the trying days of reconstruction there was but 
one development of insubordination amongst them and 
that was quelled almost immediately by the mere sight of 
a Federal officer with a squad of men from Charlotte Court 
House. It was surmised that this state of discontent was 
produced by a failure amongst the negroes to agree as to 
which of them should own the mill on the estate when the 
general division of the property giving to each " 40 acres 
and a mule " should take place; an idea which long deluded 
the freedmen throughout the South. 

Under the new system of hired labor which was a con- 
sequence of the War between the States, agriculture was 
carried on at Staunton Hill on a larger scale than ever 
before. All crops brought high prices during the years 
succeeding the commencement of the new order of things, 
and the acres planted in tobacco and corn on this estate 
were enormous, the first amounting during several years 
to one million hills, and the latter producing at times as 
much as twenty-five thousand bushels. 

Mr. Charles Bruce died in 1896. Those who under- 
stood the passionate love of the soil that was strong in 
him as in most of his day and class — a love that was in- 
herited instinct — can hardly realize that the place which 
was in a manner his own creation, which attests his affec- 
tion and care in innumerable visible forms, can go on with- 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 431 

out his watchful supervision. Yet there is no change in its 
aspect; the system that was inaugurated by him continues 
with but little variation and the Staunton Hill estate is 
to-day as productive, as amply and sedulously cultivated, 
and as fair to the eye as at any time in its history. 

INGLESIDE 

This dignified old mansion with its attractive setting 
of foliage and lawn was built in 1810, by Colonel Thomas 
Read, a prominent citizen of Charlotte County, who was a 
member of all of the Revolutionary Conventions, and of 




INGLESIDE, CHARLOTTE COUNTY 

the Convention of 1788, which ratified the Constitution of 
the United States. He was the first county clerk of Char- 
lotte and a brick office in his yard was long the county 
clerk's office. 

At Colonel Read's death, in 1817, Ingleside became 
the property of Henry Carrington, who lived there until 
his own death, in 1867. About 1870 it was sold to the late 
John W. Daniel, whose heirs still own it. 



432 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

WOODFORK 

The modest frame cottage at Woodfork was the home 
of Colonel Joel Watkins, a Revolutionary patriot, who 
died in 1820. John Randolph, of Roanoke, wrote that 
" He died beloved, honored and lamented by all who knew 
him " and that he had " accumulated an ample fortune in 
which there was not one dirty shilling." His son, Captain 
Henry A. Watkins, succeeded to the estate and in 1829 
built the commodious brick house near his father's small 
dwelling. 

Upon the death of Captain Watkins, in 1848, Wood- 
fork passed to Doctor Joel Watkins and is now owned by 
the heirs of the late James W. Elliot. 




THE OLD MILL AT GREENFIELD, CHARLOTTE COUNTY 

GREENFIELD 

" Greenfield," the home of the Reads, of Charlotte 
County, was built by Isaac Read, lieutenant colonel of the 
Fourth Regiment in the Revolutionary Army. The estate 
of Greenfield was carved out of a tract of 10,000 acres pur- 
chased by Colonel Clement Read, the father of Colonel 




GREENFIELD, CHARLOTTE COUNTY 




THE GARDEN AT GREENFIELD 



28 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 435 

Isaac Read, in 1730, in what was then known as the County 
of Brunswick, from which County Lunenburg was after- 
wards formed in 1745. In 1764 Charlotte County was cut 
off from Lunenburg. 

Greenfield is now the oldest house in Charlotte County. 
Tradition says that when it was first built settlers came for 
miles to see so palatial a residence as it was then considered. 
The timbers of the house are very massive, many of them 
being hewn. The dressed lumber was sawn in old-fashioned 
saw pits, while the nails and iron fittings are all hand-made 
of wrought iron. 

The original house has two stories, two rooms divided 
by a large hall on each floor. It has since been added to, 
to accommodate increasing families and for hospitable 
reasons, until the present house is about 150 feet in length. 
Greenfield has passed from father to child by descent, 
and has always been in possession of a Read. 

The plantation mill with its old wheel is still grinding 
corn and wheat, as it has done for the last 175 years, and 
producing the same good, honest, water-ground meal that 
made the bone and sinew of our ancestors. 

BERRY HILL 

Berry Hill, in Halifax County, is one of the finest 
models of the so-called Colonial type in the South. The 
high pillared portico, extending entirely across the front 
of the house, and the double stairway, sweeping with wide 
and graceful curves from the great central hall to rooms 
above, give this home of the Bruces an air of unusual dis- 
tinction. It was built by James Coles Bruce, son of James 
Bruce, of Woodbourne, Halifax County, and a half brother 
of Charles Bruce, of Staunton Hill. Mr. Bruce furnished 
his house in a style worthy of its imposing proportions and 
architecture, and the house was noted for its extraordinary 
amount of silver of the handsomest workmanship. Not 
only was the silver table service complete and massive, but 
several of the bedrooms were provided with washstand 
sets of the precious metal. 



436 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 




BERRY HILL, HALIFAX COUNTY 




THE HALL AT BERRY HILL 






PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 437 

The Berry Hill plantation was originally part of the 
estates of Colonel William Byrd, of Westover, and of 
Colonel Edward Carrington. It was acquired by the 
Bruces in the early part of the nineteenth century. 

Here, on his great landed estate, in the midst of 
hundreds of slaves and adherents, lived the builder of 
Berry Hill, a gentleman distinguished for talent and cul- 
tivation, until his death, in 1865, just before the close of the 
War between the States. Though originally a Union man 
his contribution to the Confederacy had amounted to at 
least $150,000.00. 

Mr. Bruce married Miss Eliza Wilkins, daughter of 
William Wilkins, Esquire, of North Carolina, and their 
son, Alexander Bruce, succeeded him as master of Berry 
Hill. 

BELLE VUE 

This property was the home of Mr. John B. Carring- 
ton, who, about 1825, erected the dwelling-house in a beauti- 
ful grove of trees, all of original growth. The property 




BELLEVUE. HALIFAX COUNTY 



remained in his family for about seventy-five years, since 
which time it has had several owners. The flower garden 
here was most attractive. On two sides were tall box trees. 



438 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

At one end they were so planted and trimmed as to make a 
nice room with sides and top of box. On another side of the 
garden was a close hedge of fig trees and in the centre a 
large circle of box about four and one-half feet high. 
Within the circle were beautiful roses and around it beds 
of old-fashioned flowers of various kinds. Back of this 
hedge of fig trees was the vegetable garden. The box and 
fig trees still remain. 

BANISTER LODGE 

Frontage of a mile and a half along the Banister River 
gave the Clark plantation, in Halifax County, its name. 
The roomy mansion was built in 1830 by Mr. William 
H. Clark. The bricks in the thick walls, which still retain 




BANISTER LODGE, HALIFAX COUNTY 

their deep red hue, were made upon the place by the slaves, 
while the folding doors between the rooms were the first 
seen in that part of the country, and were regarded as an 
interesting novelty. 

The beautiful grounds and gardens were the special 
care and pride of Mrs. Clark and were laid off under her 
direction. This lady, who was a granddaughter of Patrick 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 439 

Henry, was admired for her unusual character and talents, 
" a Godly woman with a master mind " she is said to have 
been. She was a notable musician and not only played on 
a number of musical instruments but much manuscript of 
music composed by her is still in possession of her descend- 
ants at Banister Lodge. Her piano and harp are also still 
there, while a tapestry fire-screen embroidered by her 
speaks of her proficiency with the needle. 

The planning of her home grounds gave Mrs. Clark's 
artistic tendencies full play. There is a grove of splendid 
oaks and a driveway around a circle set in arbor vitae and 
box and mimosa trees. The flower-garden is surrounded 
by box and laid off in beds, each of which is devoted to a 
different flower. There are also many shrubs; roses, of 
course, and calycanthus, syringas, snowballs, Japan apples, 
spiraeas, pomegranates, altheas, crepe myrtles, and many 
others. In the vegetable garden Mrs. Clark obtained a 
beautiful and novel effect by hedging all of the squares 
with lilacs, purple and white. Upon each side of the garden 
gate a tree overgrown with ivy stands sentinel. 

Among the interesting pieces of mahogany furniture 
made to order for Mr. Clark, and still in use at Banister 
Lodge, is the dining-table at which twenty-five persons 
can be comfortably seated. Many distinguished guests 
have sat at this hospitable table. John Randolph, of 
Roanoke, often sat there, for he was on most intimate terms 
with the family. He was in the habit of exchanging books 
with them and among the books in the library may still be 
seen some with his autograph upon the title page. General 
Lee was once a guest at Banister Lodge over night, and 
General Joseph E. Johnston was a frequent visitor there. 
During the war Bishop Johns, of the Episcopal Church, 
and Mrs. Johns refugeed at Banister Lodge for a whole 
year, during which Mr. Clark placed a small house in the 
grounds at their disposal and supplied them with all the 
comforts of life, including servants and a driving horse. 
Banister Lodge was, by the way, noted for its fine horses, 



440 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

twenty-five of which were carried off by Northern soldiers 
at one time. 

Banister Lodge is now the home of Mr. John Clark, 
son of "Sir. William H. Clark. The plantation still con- 
tains 1000 of its original 3000 acres. 



i & j 



ROANOKE 

John Randolph, of Roanoke, inherited the estate, with 
whose name his own is always coupled, from his father. 
This brilliant and strange man made his dwelling in no 
lordly mansion, but in two plain frame cottages, one of 
which he called his winter and the other his summer house. 
Outside the door of one of them was the rough block of 
stone which he frequently used as a washstand, and which 



Ml 



/- 




wp 



i\ v~*w •■■ :-/m 






- _:.■ 



1 ' t- & MMfJmm r 



MR*® 



i 



v <i: 



ROANOKE. CHARLOTTE COUNTY 



he directed should be placed over his grave. In spite of 
the modest appearance of these houses, they contained a 
fine library and much handsome furniture and old silver. 
John Randolph was buried at Roanoke, but his re- 
mains were afterwards removed to Richmond, and interred 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 441 

in Hollywood Cemetery. After his death Roanoke was 
sold and hecame the property of the Bouldin family. It 
was the home of the distinguished lawyer, Judge Wood 
Bouldin (who died in 187C>), and was destroyed by tire in 
1878, but John Randolph's office is still standing. 

Roanoke is now the property of Mr. Clarence G. 
Cheney, of Chicago, who has built a handsome new house 
upon the old site. 

MULBERRY HILL 

Mulberry Hill was the home of Paid Carrington, one 
of the most distinguished Virginians of the Revolutionary 
period. He was a member of the Conventions, and Com- 




MI I ItKHRV HII. I., CHARLOTTE COUNTY 



mittee of Safety, and for many years a judge of the Vir- 
ginia Court of Appeals. He died at the age of eighty-five 
and was buried at Mulberry Hill. The estate is now the 
property of the family of his great-grandson, Paul Car- 



rington McPhail. 



442 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

MILDENDO 

John Coles, of Richmond, Va., who has been noticed in 
the account of the Coles family and homes, owned large 
estates in the Southside. His son, Walter, settled in 
Halifax on a plantation which he named Mildendo, after 
the metropolis of the imaginary country of " Lilliput " 
in " Gulliver's Travels." Mr. Coles died in 1780, leaving 
several sons and daughters. All of the sons died unmarried. 
One of the daughters, Mildred Howell Coles, married 
Mr. Carrington and had a number of sons. To these Car- 




MILDENDO, HALIFAX COUNTY 



rington nephews, Isaac H. Coles, who died in 1814 and was 
the last surviving son of Walter Coles, left the bulk of his 
estate: " The Dan River tract" to Edward Carrington; 
" the Burch Skin " tract to Walter Carrington; The Cub 
Creek tract to Paul Carrington, and the Home House 
tract to William Carrington. Each of these plantations 
was fully provided with negroes and stock. The " Home 
House " tract, William Carrington's inheritance, was 
Mildendo. The original house was burned long ago, and 
some time afterward William Carrington built the present 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 443 

house, modelling it after a cottage which had caught his 
fancy during a visit to England. It is only one story high 
and the windows upon one side open directly upon a lovely 
old flower garden, which slopes down to the Staunton 
River. The splendid oaks which surround the house were 
the original forest trees. 

Mr. Carrington married a Miss Scott, who was a noted 
beauty and belle in her youth, and who is recalled by per- 
sons still living, who remember her in the closing days of 
her life, as a very beautiful old lady. From this couple, 
Mildendo passed to their son, Charles S. Carrington, presi- 
dent of the James River and Kanawha Canal Company, 
and his wife, who was Miss Susan McDowell, daughter 
of Governor James McDowell. Mildendo, after their time, 
passed from the Carrington family. Many Indian relics 
have been found at Mildendo and some of them may be 
seen at the Valentine Museum, Richmond. 

PRESTWOULD 

Prestwould, in Mecklenburg County (which derives its 
name from the Skip with estate in Leicestershire, England) , 
home of the later generations of the Skipwith family, in 
Virginia, was probably acquired by Sir William Skipwith 
(1707-1764), Baronet, a grandson of Sir Gray Skipwith 
(who died in 1680), a loyal cavalier, who emigrated to 
Virginia during Cromwell's time and settled in Middlesex 
County. Sir William removed from Middlesex to Bland- 
ford, in Prince George County, and at his death, in 1764, 
was succeeded, in his Prestwould estate, by his son Sir Pey- 
ton Skipwith (1740-1805) , Baronet, and he, in turn, by his 
son Humberston Skipwith, whose son Fulwar Skipwith 
was the last of the name to own Prestwould. 

This home of the Skipwith family is one of the most 
interesting and imposing places in Virginia. Situated on 
a very high hill overlooking the river, it commands an ex- 
tensive view of the valley of the Staunton. The " manor 
house " was erected in the eighteenth century by the me- 



444 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

chanic-servants of the Master of Prest would, from stone 
quarried on the plantation. 

The " mansion " is square and large, with porticoes 
north, south and east. The drive to the house is between 
high stone walls, now rapidly going to decay ; and the most 
conspicuous object on the lawn is a giant oak, which is 
said to have been a landmark for the Indians going north 
and south. 

One enters the house through a portico which opens 
into a large hall; on the right of this hall (known as the 




PRESTWOULD, MECKLENM'RC COUNTY 



" land hall ') is the immense dining-room, whose wall deco- 
ration is paper covered by life-sized figures of huntsmen in 
red coats, mounted on gay chargers, with dogs a-plenty and 
trees and grass; the hall also is beautified with the same 
paper. On the left of this hall is the " Chamber " of the 
Master and Mistress, and parallel to it the children's 
nursery. From this " land hall " wide doors lead to the 
" river hall," more spacious and magnificent than the for- 
mer. This latter is papered with English scenes, ladies on 
horses, dogs, bridges, verdure and trees; and to the left 
is the formal drawing-room, whose walls are hung with 
paper picturing Venetian scenes — gondolas, palaces, etc. 



PIEDMONT AND THE SOUTH SIDE 445 

A beautiful stairway leads from this " river hall " to the 
upper hall, on which open six large bed-rooms. Each win- 
dow in the house has a large seat. 

In June, 1914, much of the Skipwith furniture (some 
of which had been built in early times by cabinet-makers 
on the place) was still in this ancient house, and probably 
there was not such a collection in existence elsewhere. In 
this collection were specimens of the finest seventeenth 
century craft, with wonderful pictures and other objects 
of vertu. 

An interesting building on the estate is a dancing pavil- 
ion, octagonal in shape, which stands some distance from 
the " manor house." The graveyard contains handsome 
armorial tombs. 

Mr. A. J. Goddard, the present owner of Prestwould, 
is restoring the dwelling house and grounds to their 
former beautv. 




IVY CLIFF, BEDFORD ( OUNTY 

IVY CLIFF 

Henry Brown (1712-98) settled here in 1755 after 
massacre of his parents by Indians near Salem, Va. He 
built as his residence a stone block-house, which was the 
birthplace of his sons Henry (1760-1840), and Reverend 
Samuel ( — -1818), who married Mary Moore, " Captive 
of Abb's Valley." Henry was captain in Green's army 
and wounded at Guilford Court House. He built the 
present house in 1829. His sons were John Thompson 
(1802-36), and Samuel, who lived here. After his death, 
in 1855, the property passed to his nephew, Henry Peron- 
neau Brown, father of John Thompson Brown, the present 
owner. 



PART VII 
Beyond the Mountains 

WEST of the Blue Ridge and somewhat cut 
off from the rest of the State by that noble 
mountain range lies a region extensive and 
varied and highly picturesque, with its views 
of mountain, river, field and forest. 

The most notable part of this section is the valley 
known by the Indian name of " Shenandoah," and settled 
chiefly by the thrifty Germans and Scotch Irish. In one 
of its counties, however, Clarke, originally a part of Fred- 
erick, the Carters, Burwells, Pages, and other families 
of the old Colonial counties, chiefly Gloucester, patented 
great tracts of lands upon which their descendants, who 
had intermarried until they formed a sort of clan, built a 
number of homesteads — some of them ample and stately, 
others more modest. 




OLD STONE CHURCH, AUGUSTA COUNTY 



BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 
OLD STONE CHURCH 



447 



About eight miles from Staunton is the Old Stone 
Church, one of the earliest and perhaps the most interest- 
ing of the Presbyterian churches in Virginia. It was 
built in 1747, and was formerly surrounded by a ditch and 
palisade, making of it a fort for protection against the 
Indians. " The old house has seen generations pass; it has 
heard the sermons of the Virginia Synod in its youthful 
days. Here the famous Waddell was taken under care 
of Hanover Presbytery as a candidate for the ministry 
in 1760; here the venerated Hoge was licensed in 1781 ; 
here the Rev. Archibald Alexander passed some of his 
trials in preparation for the ministry." 




GREENYVAY COURT, CLARKE COUNTY 



GREENWAY COURT, THE HOME OF 
LORD FAIRFAX 

The greatest landed estate ever held in Virginia was 
the famous Northern Neck owned successively by the 
Lords Culpeper and Fairfax. How Thomas, Lord Fair- 
fax, left his English home to come and live at Greenway 
Court in the midst of his princely estate, within the present 
Clarke County, is a familiar story. The Greenway Court 
mansion where Washington often visited during his youth 



448 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

has long since gone, but Lord Fairfax's land office where 
grants for land within his domain were made, and the 
' White Post," one of his landmarks, which has given its 
name to a village of the vicinity, still remain. 

SPRINGDALE 

Upon the Opequon River, in Frederick County, six 
miles south of Winchester, lies Springdale, one of the 
oldest plantations in the Shenandoah Valley. Upon it 
to-day stand the picturesque ruin of a plain, but sturdy 
old stone house and a more ambitious structure of the 
same material, with dormer windows and a Greek porch. 
They are the earlier and later homes of Joist Hite, the 
ancestor of all the Virginia Hites, who settled here in 
1732, under grant from the governor of Virginia. The 
older dwelling was built over a bold spring to prevent risk 
of being cut off from water by the Indians. It was in 




OLD SPRINGDALE HOUSE, FREDERICK COUNTY 

this that General Washington was Mr. Hite's guest for 
a night, while surveying for Lord Fairfax. After the 
new mansion was built, in 1753, the old house was used as 



BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 



449 



negro quarters. Upon the removal of Mr. Hite to a resi- 
dence some twelve miles to the south, upon the hanks of 
the Cedar Creek, Springdale passed into the possession 




SPRINGDALE, FREDERICK COUNTY 

of a family named Brown, from whom it was bought, 
about 1801, by Mr. Richard Peters Barton, son of a 
clergyman of the Church of England, and remained in 
the Barton family until after the Civil War. 

ABRAHAM'S DELIGHT 

Abraham's Delight is the quaint name of an old 
mansion, one mile from the town of Winchester, on 
Abraham's Creek. The homestead and a flour mill were 
built in 1754, by Isaac Hollinsworth, a Quaker, whose 
grandfather, Thomas Hollinsworth, came to America with 
William Penn and settled in New Castle County, Dela- 
ware. 

Thomas Hollinsworth's oldest son, Abraham, who mar- 
ried, in 1737, Anna Robinson, bought of Alexander Ross, 
under his patent, from Governor Gooch, of Virginia, 582 
acres of land near Winchester, upon which his son and 



450 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

heir, Isaac Hollinsworth, planted this sturdy roof tree, still 
owned by his descendants. 

Upon the eastern gable of the house are the initials 
" I. H." with date 1754. 




ABRAHAM'S DELIGHT, NEAR WINCHESTER 

MOUNTAIN VIEW 

When the war came to blight and blot out forever 
much of the charm of Southern life, no portion of Virginia, 
perhaps, was richer in old family seats than Clarke County 
in the Lower Valley. About the little village of Millwood 
in those days were dotted the homes of the Nelsons, Car- 
ters, Pages, Burwells, and others locally known as the 
" M ill wood neighborhood." 

Among all these delightful homes of that time, none, 
perhaps, would have evoked a keener interest than Moun- 
tain View, the residence of Bishop Meade. 

Mountain View could claim no part in the interest 
that attaches to Colonial antiquity, nor did it possess any 
architectural beauty. Indeed, the first house that bore 
the name was a very modest, unpretentious structure, 



BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 451 

which was burnt about the middle of the last century, 
and the building which replaced it was nothing more than 
a simple, comfortable country residence, as far removed 
as possible from the traditional Episcopal palace. Devoid 
though the house was of architectural or other esthetic 
charm, the place was of rare beauty and distinction. The 
location was very fine, a high hill from which the terrace 
fell away towards the Shenandoah River, a few miles dis- 
tant, in pleasing variety of hill, meadow and forest. 

East and south the eye rested in the near distance upon 
the almost circular sweep of the Blue Ridge. 

On the west and north fine old forest oaks arrested or 
mitigated the harshness of the windy storms. Immediately 
about the house clustered magnificent evergreens and 
other ornamental trees, but the chief pride of Mountain 
View and the apple of the bishop's eye was a plantation, a 
lawn of about 20 acres in front of the house of rare trees 
which he had gathered from many lands and fostered and 
cherished, with a love that ended only with his life. 

To many dignitaries of the church, and others who 
from time to time visited Mountain View, it was the 
bishop's supreme delight to show these trees, which were 
so near his heart, dwelling with affectionate detail upon 
the history of each. Captain Robert E. Lee and his wife 
visited Mountain View shortly after the Mexican War. 
How little did anyone then suspect how great a part this 
modest, handsome gentleman was destined to play in the 
tremendous struggle of the coming years. Yet in little 
over a decade Bishop Meade lay dying in Richmond and 
General Lee was at the bedside of his aged friend to receive 
his blessing and encouragement to persevere in the great 
battle for freedom, the chief weight of which was to rest 
upon his shoulders. 

Something of tragic interest attaches to another and 
later visitor to Mountain View. Bishop Polk came to con- 
sult his older brother in the Episcopate as to the propriety 
of his accepting the commission of lieutenant-general in 



452 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

the Confederate Army, which President Davis was urging 
upon him. 

All know the tragic sequel of his brief, glorious career 
and his heroic death in the Georgia campaign. 

The good bishop — the iron bishop of Virginia, some 
one has called him — has slept for nearly half a century on 
the slope of the hill, whose summit is crowned by the great 
theological seminary — the child of his lifelong prayers 
and devotion; the trees that he gathered and planted and 
loved are dead and the ploughshares pass where they once 
stood. For many a year Mountain View has been the home 
of strangers. 

Pulvis et umbra sumus. 

THE OLD STONE CHAPEL 

One of the most venerable and interesting houses in 
Clarke County is the Old Stone Chapel, sometimes called 
Bishop. Meade's chapel. It is but a tiny and plain sanctu- 
ary of rough stone in the midst of an old graveyard sur- 
rounded by a rustic stone fence, but it is most impressive. 
Before the Revolution the two acres of land, upon which 
church and churchyard stand, were offered to the vestry 
by their owner, Colonel Hugh Nelson. 

The plan to build failed at that time, but after the war 
was over the matter was taken up again. Colonel 
Nathaniel Burwell, who had now acquired the land, gave 
the same two acres that Colonel Nelson had offered, and 
the chapel was built in 1790. In 1834 it was found that 
the congregation had outgrown the church, so a larger one 
was built in a more convenient location in the village of 
Millwood, upon land also given by a member of the Bur- 
well family, Colonel George, of Carter Hall. 

After "the completion of the new church, regular ser- 
vices in the Old Chapel were suspended, but for many 
years past it has been customary, for good Episcopalians 
within the reach of this sacred relic, to make a pilgrimage 



BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 



453 



there upon some bright Sunday during summer when again 
the old walls echo the ancient prayers and praises. 

The burying ground at the old chapel is sometimes 
called the Burwell graveyard, not only because the Bur- 
wells gave the land upon which it lies, but because many 




OLD STONE CHAPEL, CLARKE COUNTY 

more of that family than of any other have found a resting 
place there. Yet, says Bishop Meade, " Ever since the ap- 
propriation to this purpose, it has been the graveyard of 
the rich and poor, bond and free, those who live near it and 
the stranger from afar, who died near it." 

CARTER HALL 

Colonel Nathaniel Burwell, of The Grove, near 
Williamsburg (of which a sketch has been given in the 
chapter entitled " The Lower James "), moved to Clarke 
soon after the Revolution, and built Carter Hall before 
1790. Colonel Burwell was twice married. His first wife 
was Susan Grymes, to whom he was deeply devoted. After 



454 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

her death he was so bereaved that he found it impossible to 
bear his grief without a companion in misery, and cast 
about to find one who had been similarly afflicted, and 
could, therefore, sympathize with him. Finally he went 
to Rosewell and asked Governor John Page to send for 
his half-sister, Mrs. George Baylor, who was a young and 
beautiful widow, that he might marry her. She came, but 
promptly rejected the disconsolate widower's proposal. 
" Lucy," he remonstrated, " you do not know what is good 
for you; your brother John and I arranged it all before 
you came." That seemed to settle the matter, and the 
wedding soon took place. After the ceremony the bride- 
groom said, " Now, Lucy, you can weep for your dear 
George, and I will weep for my beloved Sucky." 

In Carter Hall these companions in woe had a most 
alluring place in which to mourn their departed other 
halves ; with the white columns of its Greek portico stand- 
ing out against the background of the surrounding trees, 
it is now and must have been then one of the fairest roof- 
trees in Virginia. Samuel Kercheval, in his history of the 
valley of Virginia, describes it as it was during the lifetime 
of Colonel Nathaniel Burwell's son and heir, George H. 
Burwell, who was then its master. He says, "The resi- 
dence of Mr. George Harrison Burwell is splendidly im- 
proved with stone buildings. The main building is sixty- 
six feet by thirty, three stories with a wing at each end, 
twenty-one feet long, two stories high. The whole build- 
ing is finished in the most tasteful style of modern archi- 
tecture. This was the former residence of Colonel 
Nathaniel Burwell, a gentleman of great wealth. The 
building stands on a beautiful eminence and commands a 
delightful view of the Blue Ridge and the adjacent neigh- 
borhood. The water is conveyed by force-pumps from a 
fine spring to the dwelling house, yards, and stable, at a 
distance of about three hundred yards. This fine farm may 
with truth be said to be among the most elegantly improved 
estates west of the Blue Ridge." 




CARTER HALL, CLARKE COUNTY 




LONG BRANCH, CLARKE COUNTY 



BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 457 

A beautiful grove and the great spring mentioned by 
Kercheval, in its green, shady dell a little way to the rear 
of the house, are charming features of the grounds. 

Mr. George Harrison Burwell, by his second marriage, 
with Miss Agnes Atkinson, was the father of three daugh- 
ters: Eliza Page, who married Mr. Thomas Randolph, of 
Clarke; Isabelle, who married Mr. P. H. Mayo, of Rich- 
mond ; Agnes, who married Mr. Powell Page, of Saratoga, 
Clarke County; and of one son, George Harrison Bur- 
well, Jr., who inherited Carter Hall. 

After the death of her husband, Mrs. Burwell made 
her home with her daughter, Mrs. Powell Page, at Sara- 
toga, until her own death at a ripe age. She was " Cousin 
Agnes " to half of the county, and is lovingly remembered 
as one of the dear and saintly old ladies of ancient regime, 
in a dainty cap and soft shawl. She was charmingly old- 
fashioned, and until the end, went abroad to church or visit- 
ing in the ancient high swung coach, which was probably 
the last of its type, with whose dignified proportions and 
swaying motion she was pleasantly familiar; and happy 
was the child who was invited to a seat beside her in this 
imposing equipage. 

Carter Hall, after having been owned and occupied by 
three successive generations of Burwells, passed from the 
family, but, happily, it has lately been bought back by 
Mr. Townsend Burwell, great-grandson of its founder, 
Colonel Nathaniel Burwell, and son of Mr. George H. 
Burwell, and his first wife, Laura Dunbar Lee. 

LONG BRANCH 

Turning our backs upon Carter Hall, a short drive brings 
us to Long Branch, the home of the Nelsons. The mansion 
fitly crowns a hill-top surrounded by groves of noble trees. 
It is built upon a most ample plan, of brick with thick walls, 
high ceilings, and spacious rooms, and opens both at front 
and rear, upon stately pillared porticoes. Very beautiful 
is the interior. The wide doors open from the front and 



458 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

back porticoes upon the great hall, which occupies the 
centre of the house. Midway of this hall two lofty columns 
rise to the ceiling which they help to support. There is 
much handsome hand-carved woodwork in the hall and 
rooms, and the most striking feature of the house is the 
beautiful stair, with hand-carved balustrade, which winds 
upward from the hall to the observatory upon the roof. 
Two of the big square rooms are given an exceedingly in- 
teresting air by the quaint old wall papers, still in a state 
of perfect preservation, with which they are hung. One of 
these represents scenes in Paris, the other the Bay of 
Naples. 

Long Branch is over a century old. It was built in 
1805 or 1806, by Captain Robert Carter Burwell, who com- 
manded a company of militia in the War of 1812 and died 
in the service at Norfolk. Before going to the war he 
made his will leaving Long Branch to Mr. Philip Nelson, 
son of Governor Nelson, of Yorktown, who had in 1789 
married his sister Sarah Nelson Burwell. In about 1836 
Mr. Nelson sold the estate to his nephew Hugh Nelson, 
who had in that year married Miss Adelaide Holker, of 
Boston, and who left it to his only son, Hugh Nelson, Jr., 
who married his cousin Miss Sally Page Nelson, and is its 
present owner. 

Long Branch has always been a seat of hospitality and 
never more so than during the time of its present genial 
master and mistress. 

SARATOGA 

Upon the other side of the village of Millwood from 
Long Branch and Carter Hall, and somewhat retired from 
the celebrated " Valley turnpike," is one of the most in- 
teresting homesteads in the county; this is Saratoga, built 
by General Daniel Morgan, who took up his abode in 
Clarke after the Revolution, and named his home after 
the great battle, which made him famous. Its massive and 
rugged walls were built of gray stone found in the neigh- 



BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 



459 



borhood, and it is said tbat the laborers employed by Gen- 
eral Morgan in its construction were Hessian prisoners, 
taken during the Revolution. 

In course of time Saratoga passed, by purchase, to the 
Page family and has long been the residence of Mr. Robert 







SARATOGA, CLARKE COUNTY 

Powell Page, Jr., who inherited it from his father, Dr. 
Robert Powell Page, of " The Briars," a few miles away, 
and who married, about 1870, Miss Agnes Burwell, of 
Carter Hall. 

CLIFTON, CLARKE COUNTY 

This house was built about 1800 by David Hume Allen, 
and after his death was owned for fifteen years by his 
widow, who before her marriage had been Miss Sarah Grif- 
fen Taylor. After Mrs. Allen's death the estate was in- 
herited* by their youngest son Edgar Allen, who held it 
until his death, in 1903. Edgar Allen never married and 
the property was left to his nephews and nieces. It was 
purchased by Robert Owen Allen (eldest son of Algernon 
Sidney Allen, who was eldest son of David Hume Allen) , 



460 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

who owned it until 1914, when it passed into the possession 
of his son, Dr. L. M. Allen, of Winchester, Va., who is the 
present owner. 




CLIFTON, CLARKE COUNTY 



PAGEBROOK 



Pagebrook, one of the oldest homes in Clarke County, 
stands a short distance back from the " valley pike," upon 
the brow of a hill commanding a view of extensive, but 
rustic grounds, and the Blue Ridge beyond. The planta- 
tion, like many others in the neighborhood, is enclosed 
from the road by the grey, rugged stone fences, which the 
Virginia creeper and trumpet flower love, and which, be- 
wreathed with these and other gray-hued climbers, add a 
charming feature to the already picturesque landscape. A 
little way down the hill from one side of the mansion, a 
group of fine old weeping-willows hang their long fringes 
over the spring-house, with its suggestions of cool butter- 
milk and other palatable things. The overflow from the 
spring makes a little brook which runs on down the hill and 
into the glen beyond it, which with its great shade trees and 



BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 



461 



its mossy gray boulders makes a natural park. The house 
is simple, but substantial and commodious. It was built 
soon after the Revolution by John Page, son of Robert 




PAGEBROOK, CLARKE COUNTY 



Page, of Broadneck, Hanover County — " that holy man, 
John Page," a writer of the time calls him. He married 
Maria, daughter of Colonel William Byrd III, of West- 
over, and died in 1838. He was succeeded at Pagebrook by 
his son, Judge John Evelyn Page, of the Virginia Circuit 
Court, who occupied it until his own death, in 1881. Judge 
Page married Miss Emily McGuire, of Loudoun County, 
and had many children, but upon his death, in 1881, Page- 
brook passed, by purchase, to his nephew, Mr. Herbert H. 
Page, of Edenton, N. C, who used it as a summer home. 
After the death of Mr. Herbert Page the estate passed 
from the family that had always owned it and has since 
changed hands several times. It is now the property of 
Mr. Mulliken. 

NATURAL BRIDGE 

So interesting an object could not escape the curiosity 
and observation of Mr. Jefferson. His account of it is as 
follows: 



462 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

" The Natural Bridge, the most sublime of nature's 
work, is on the aseent of a hill, which seems to have been 
cloven through its length by some great convulsion. The 
fissure, just at the bridge, is by some admeasurements 
270 feet deep, by others only 205. It is about 45 feet wide 
at the bottom, and 90 feet at the top ; this of course deter- 




NATURAL BRIDGE 

mines the length of the bridge, and its height from the 
water. Its breadth in the middle is about 60 feet, but 
more at the ends, and the thickness of the mass at the 
summit of the arch, about 40 feet. A part of this thickness 
is constituted by a coat of earth, which gives growth to 
many large trees. The residue, with the hill on both sides, 



BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 



463 



is one solid rock of limestone. The arch approaches the 
semi-elliptical form; but the larger axis of the ellipses, 
which would be the chord of the arch, is many times longer 
than the transverse. Though the sides of the bridge are 
provided in some parts with a parapet of fixed rocks, yet 
few men have resolution to walk to them, and look over 
into the abyss. You involuntarily fall on your hands and 
feet, creep to the parapet, and look over it. Looking down 
from this height about a minute, gave me a violent head- 




ON THE ROAD TO NATURAL BRIDGE (1889). 

ache. If the view from the top be painful and intolerable, 
that from below is delightful in the extreme. It is im- 
possible for the emotions arising from the sublime to be felt 
beyond what they are here : on the sight of so beautiful an 
arch, so elevated, so light, and springing as it were up to 
heaven, the rapture of the spectator is really indescribable ! 
The fissure continuing narrow, deep and straight for a con- 
siderable distance above and below the bridge, opens a 
short but very pleasing view of the North Mountain on 
one side, and Blue Ridge on the other, at the distance each 
of them of about five miles. This bridge is in the county 
of Rockbridge, to which it has given name, and affords a 
public and commodious passage over a valley, which cannot 
be crossed elsewhere for a considerable distance. The 
stream passing under it is called Cedar Creek." 






464 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

The Marquis de Chastellux in his Travels in North- 
America in the years 1780-81-82 gives a description of 
Natural Bridge which was sent him by Baron de Turpin, 
who was sent to take dimensions of the bridge and make 
report thereof. The conclusion of the Baron's report is as 
follows : 

" The excavation of eight or ten inches, formed in the 
pied droit, or supporter, on the left bank of the stream, 
under the spring of the arch, lengthens it into the form of 
a crow's beak. This decay and some other parts which are 
blown up, give reason to presume that this surprising edi- 
fice will one day become a victim of that time which has 
destroyed so many others." 

Measurements of the Bridge at this time show that it 
is very much as it was when the Baron's account was writ- 
ten, about one hundred and thirty-five years ago. 

WINDY COVE CHURCH AND 
WALLAWHATOOLA 

In picturesque Bath County, across the Alleghany 
Mountains, from the Shenandoah Valley, is an interesting 
relic of pioneer days. This is Windy Cove Church, which, 
though not built until 1838, is the fourth sanctuary occu- 
pied by the congregation of devout Presbyterians, which 
was here organized nearly a hundred years before, in the 
year 1749, and had worshipped in a succession of log 
houses, each one larger and more comfortable than its 
predecessor. The families which formed the first congre- 
gation and built the first church were a band of those sturdy 
Scotch-Irish immigrants who brought to Virginia char- 
acter many of its most sterling traits. The settlement was 
on the extreme frontier and constant danger of molesta- 
tion from the Indians made it necessary there, as it had 
earlier been at Jamestown, for the men to take their fire- 
arms to church. 

The first church was situated about a mile from the 
present building down the lovely little river called by the 



BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 



465 



Indians Wallawhatoola, and on the side of the hill, which 
the pioneers named " Betsy Bell." It was a small house 
of unhewn logs, with puncheons, or squared logs, for seats, 
and was heated by an open log fire at each end. Its pastor 
was the Reverend Alexander Craighead, a native of the 
north of Ireland. The little church took the name by which 
it is still known from a remarkable natural cave not far 
away. 

The third church was larger than the first and second, 
and was built of hewn logs, with a " session house " ad- 
joining, and stood upon the site of the present building. 




WALLAWHATOOLA, BATH COUNTY 

The " Betsy Bell " is a part of the Wallawhatoola prop- 
erty. The dwelling was built about one hundred and fifty 
years ago and was a typical frontiersman's log weather- 
boarded house of four rooms. This has been gradually 
added to until it has now more than twenty rooms. It was 
formerly owned by the Sitlingtons, a family prominent 
in the early history of Bath County. 

The estate was purchased from this family by Mr. 
John L. Lee, now of Lynchburg, and sold by him in 1883, 
to the late Robert A. Lancaster, of Richmond, for a sum- 
mer home and is still in the possession of his family. 

30 



460 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

THE MEADOWS 

This property was bought from a man named Bradley 
by Captain Francis Smith, of Abingdon, in 1817. Captain 
Smith's first wife was a daughter of " Madam Russell " 
(successively the wife of General William Campbell and 
General William Russell), who was sister of Patrick 
Henry. There were no children by this first marriage. 
Captain Smith married, secondly, Mary Trigg, the widow 
of William King, the founder of the famous Salt Works 
in Smyth County. From this marriage there was one 
daughter, Mary, who married Governor Wyndham Robert- 
son, of Richmond. She was a child five years old when 
her father bought this property and the name " Mary's 
Meadows " was given in her honor. When Mrs. Robert- 
son succeeded to the estate on the death of her father, 




THE MEADOWS, WASHINGTON COUNTY 



the name was changed to " The Meadows/' The property 
is now owned by her son, Captain Francis Smith Robert- 
son, an ex-officer of Stuart's Staff. 

BROOK HALL 

Brook Hall in Washington County, a large brick house 
of some eighteen or twenty rooms situated on a beautiful 
hill, was erected in 1835, by Colonel William Byars, a 



BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 



467 



wealthy and prosperous planter and merchant. Until 
comparatively recently the estate was occupied by Mrs. 
Ernest, the youngest daughter of Colonel Byars, and is 
now the property of a family of Robertsons. 

At the foot of the hill on which the " mansion house " 
stands is an old mill situated on a lovely creek. Near the 
mill is an old log house, nearly a hundred years old, which 
was Colonel Byars 1 home before the erection of Brook 
Hall. This estate is just two miles from Emory and I lenry 
College, of which Colonel Byars was one of the "founders." 




OLD BYARS HOUSE, WASHINGTON COUNTY 

Southern View — a place of great beauty — is three miles 
east of Brook Hall, and the present house was remodelled 
some fifty vears ago by Colonel James M. Byars, son of 
Colonel William Byars of Brook Hall. Southern View 
was originally Fort Kilmekmanley, a massive structure of 
river stone with walls three feet thick, which had been 
erected in the days of the Indian terror as a protection to 
women and children of this section. When Colonel James 



468 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

M. Byars inherited from his father some two thousand 
acres of this fertile estate, he desired to erect a handsome 
residence on the site of the old fort and employed many 
workmen for the purpose. Work was begun on demolish- 
ing the old building. The tightly cemented " gable ends " 
of the old house presented so formidable a resistance that it 
required two weeks to remove them and Colonel Ryars de- 
termined to let the walls remain and cover them with a 
" modern " tin roof and terra-cotta chimneys. The dis- 
colored and dilapidated appearance of the walls was not, 
however, in keeping with the intended magnificence of the 
building and it was decided to " stucco " them. Workmen 
were brought from Louisville, Kentucky, for this purpose 
and the result of their efforts is the present house, seem- 
ingly a construction of gray granite blocks. 

The wonderful Ebbing and Flowing Spring is on this 
estate, a mile from the house and just on the bank of the 
river (Middle Fork of Holston) . When the river is " full " 
the spring is submerged, resuming its normal condition 
when the waters subside. At this spring, many, many 
years ago there was a church. On a Sunday, when there 
was a large congregation, and the preacher at his best, 
three Tories were seen passing, whereupon congregation, 
preacher and all, ran out of the church, pursued them up 
the river a mile, caught and hung them on a sycamore tree, 
on the banks of the river. Their bodies were buried there. 
Some years ago when there was a freshet, one of the skele- 
tons was washed up. The old church at Ebbing and Flow- 
ing Spring has long since passed out of existence, a small 
chapel now occupying the site. 

SMITHFIELD 

Smithfield, the home of the Prestons, is situated in 
Montgomery County, in the southwestern part of Virginia. 
It was a grant of three thousand acres from the Colonial 
government to John Preston, whose son, William Preston, 
began the erection of the house. His building was inter- 
rupted by the outbreak of the Revolution, in which war he 



BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 



409 



served as colonel. At the close of the war, Colonel Preston 
resumed work on his home and completed it. At his death 
the place passed to his son, James Patton Preston, Gover- 
nor of Virginia, who, in turn, left it to his son, the Honor- 
able William Ballard Preston. 

Smithfield is now owned by the youngest daughter of 
William Ballard Preston, Mrs. Aubin Lee Boulware, of 
Richmond, Virginia. 

Much of interest centres in this historic home. Situ- 
ated at the top of the Allegheny Mountains, in a valley of 




SMITHFIELD, MONTGOMERY COUNTY 

waving blue grass, it jn'esents a picture of rich beauty. 
The verdure of the meadowlands with their crystal stream 
stretching like a white ribbon through their entire length, 
the grandeur of the surrounding mountains, and the dense 
forest land, free from undergrowth, combine to make of 
Smithfield one of Nature's fairest scenes. The big walnut 
trees, shading the blue grass meadows, give cool resting 
places for horses and cattle which graze among the deep, 
luscious green. 

The house is a large one, topped with dormer windows. 



470 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

The interior woodwork is hand carved, and the elaborate 
mantel pieces reach nearly to the ceiling. All through the 
house handwork is noticeable, and the nails were wrought 
on the place. 

In the early days of Smithfield, Mrs. John Preston's 
brother, Colonel James Patton, who was in " the upper 
country on business," was murdered by the Indians. 

Smithfield was famed for its hospitality. It was the 
Mecca to which the Kentucky and South Carolina Pres- 
tons made yearly pilgrimages, travelling the long distances 
in their stately coaches, driving four horses, and followed 
by their retinues of servants. Especially during the 
summer and autumn months was the old house overflowing 
with guests, and dispensing entertainment with a gener- 
ous, lavish hand. 

The place is well kept up now. And in the old grave- 
yard are many monuments to the illustrious men and 
women of past generations, who keep before us — in vivid, 
glowing and indelible colors — a picture of their brilliant 
past in this old mansion, " Smithfield." 

PRESTON HOUSE 

General Francis Preston, who was an able lawyer and 
member of Congress, who married Sarah Buchanan, 
daughter of General William Campbell of King's Moun- 
tain fame, removed to Abingdon in 1810, and built the 
house which is now one of the buildings of Martha Wash- 
ington College. In few houses in Virginia has so dis- 
tinguished a group of sons and daughters been raised as 
were the children of General Preston. Among them were 
his sons, William C. and John S. Preston of South Car- 
olina and the wives of Governors John B. Floyd and 
James McDowell of Virginia and General Wade Hamp- 
ton of South Carolina. In 1845, General Preston's son 
Thomas L. Preston, Professor at the University of Vir- 
ginia, sold the place to the Trustees of Martha Wash- 
ington College. 




PRESTON HOUSE, ABINGDON 




FORT LEWIS, BATH COUNTY 



BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 473 

FORT LEWIS 

Fort Lewis, in the present Bath County, was originally 
the home of the gallant Colonel Charles Lewis, who lost 
his life in the hattle of Point Pleasant. 

Charles Lewis was the youngest of the sons of John 
Lewis of Augusta County, who emigrated from Ireland, 
and his wife Margaret Lynn, said to have been a daughter 
of " The Laird of Loch Lynn," and most certainly the 
sister of Doctor Andrew Lynn, who emigrated and settled 
in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and who mentions in his 
will (among other kinsmen) " Sister Lewis and her four 
sons, Thomas, Andrew, William and Charles Lewis." 
Charles Lewis was born shortly after his parents reached 
Virginia. His brothers, Andrew, Thomas and William, 
were, like himself, distinguished soldiers and frontiersmen. 

Colonel Charles Lewis' holdings in the present Bath 
County consisted of many thousands of acres of land, in- 
cluding both of the celebrated springs — " the Hot " and 
" the Warm." He moved to his " Fort Lewis " estate 
several years before his death, and, as its name indicates, 
this was one of the " out-post " strongholds for protection 
against the Indians, who called the old stockade " Lewis' 
Hog Pen." 

The present dwelling, within the boundaries of the 
old fort, was erected by Benjamin Crawford about 1859, 
Mr. Crawford having purchased the site from Samuel 
Lewis, son of John Lewis, who was son of Colonel Charles 
Lewis. Later Mr. Crawford sold the estate to Frederick 
Fultz, who in turn sold it to Doctor Henkel of Staunton, 
Virginia. 

" The fairie of Charles Lewis," says Waddell, in his 
Annals of Augusta County, " has come down to us as that 
of a hero of romance. From all accounts he was an ad- 
mirable man, and if his life had not ended prematurely 
would have achieved great distinction. At an early age 
he was reported to be the most skilful of all the frontier 
Indian fighters." Wills De Haas, in his History of the 



474 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Early Settlement and Indian Wars of Western Virginia, 
gives the following very interesting description of an inci- 
dent in Lewis' career. " On one occasion," says De Haas, 
"he (Lewis) was captured by the Indians while on a 
hunting excursion, and after travelling over two hundred 
miles barefooted, his arms pinioned behind, and goaded 
by the knives of his remorseless captors, he effected his 
escape. While travelling along the bank of a precipice 
some twenty feet in height, he suddenly, by a strong 
muscular exertion, burst the cords which bound him, and 
plunged over the steep into the bed of a mountain torrent. 
His persecutors hesitated to follow. In a race of several 
hundred yards Lewis had gained some few yards upon 
his pursuers, when, upon leaping a fallen tree which lay 
across his course, his strength suddenly failed and he fell 
prostrate among the weeds which had grown up in great 
luxuriance around the body of the tree. Three of the 
Indians sprang over the tree within a few feet of where 
their prey lay concealed, but with feelings of the most 
devout thankfulness to a kind and superintending Provi- 
dence, he saw them one by one disappear in the dark recess 
of the forest. He now bethought himself of rising from 
his uneasy bed, when lo! a new enemy appeared, in the 
shape of an enormous rattlesnake, who had thrown him- 
self into a deadly coil so near his face that his fangs were 
within a few inches of his nose: and his enormous rattle, 
as it waved to and fro, once rested upon his ear. A single 
contraction of the eyelid — a convulsive shudder — the re- 
laxation of a single muscle, and the deadly beast 
would have sprung upon him. In this situation he lay 
for several minutes, when the reptile, probably supposing 
him to be dead, crawled over his body and moved slowly 
away. ' I had eaten nothing,' said Lewis to his com- 
panions, after his return, ' for many days; I had no fire- 
arms and I ran the risk of dying with hunger ere I could 
reach the settlement; but rather would I have died than 
make a meal of the generous beast.' " 



BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 



475 



GREEN VALLEY 

Green Valley in Bath County was also the site of an 
old fort used for protection from the Indians. The fort 
originally occupied a position near the present dwelling. 
In 1755 the Indians made a capture of this fort and among 
the prisoners then made was one Joe Mayse, who had been 
wounded. Neighbors went in pursuit of the Indians and 
rescued Mayse, whom they found riding and forced to 
carry some of the red man's plunder, among which was 
a coil of rope which was thrown over his head. The firing 
of the rescuing party frightened the horse which was 




GREEN VALLEY, BATH COUNTY 

carrying Mayse and he was thrown and dragged for a 
considerable distance, with great difficulty finally releasing 
himself. 

The original house at Green Valley was merely a 
frontiersman's cabin, and was built by a Mr. McCallop, 
who later sold the place to James Frazer, who enlarged 
the house to its present proportions and kept it as a 
" stage-tavern." About 1854 Samuel Lewis purchased 
Green Valley from William Frazer. From Samuel 
Lewis the place descended to his son Jasper Lewis, the 
present owner. 



476 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

MONT CALM 

The historic old homestead, Mont Calm, now occupied 
as a residence by Mr. W. E. Mingea, was built by Gov- 
ernor David Campbell about the year 1830. It crowns 
a hilltop on the south side of Abingdon which overlooks 
the whole town, and to the south one of the finest moun- 
tain views to be seen anywhere in this section spreads out 




MONT CALM, ABINGDON 



before the eye of the observer. White Top and Mount 
Rogers, the two highest points in Virginia, are plainly 
visible, with miles and miles of fertile lands and an oc- 
casional range of smaller mountains lying between. 

Upon the death of Governor Campbell, the property 
descended to Governor William B. Campbell of Ten- 
nessee, and his sister, Mrs. Shelton. It was then rented 
by various parties — Judge John A. Campbell among the 



BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 477 

number. After the deaths of Governor William Campbell 
and sister, the property was purchased from their estate 
by Colonel Arthur C. Cummings, who married Elizabeth 
Preston, daughter of J no. M. Preston, 1st, of Seven Mile 
Ford. Colonel Cummings' family having passed away, 
he bequeathed the plaee to his wife's nieces and nephews, 
sixteen in number; they, in turn, sold it to Mr. W. E. 
Mingea, the present owner. 

The trees on the lawn are giant white pines, planted 
out by Governor Campbell's own hands. Leading from 
this lawn to the macadam pike is a splendid avenue of 
maples, making the approach one of great attraetiveness. 
Wonderful holly trees add greatly to the beauty of the 
spacious lawn, and the old-time garden, with the hedges 
of boxwood, beds of violets, lilies of the valley and pinks, 
is still there. 

Presumably the name selected by its distinguished first 
owner w r as due to the fact that Governor Campbell was an 
officer in the War of 1812, and saw service in Canada 
under General Alexander Smyth, for whom Smyth 
County, Virginia, is named. In his military service he 
probably saw the historic Heights of Abraham at Quebec, 
where the French General, Montcalm, lost his life. At 
this particular epoch in our history we were at daggers 
drawn with Britain and bosom friends with France. This 
consideration also probably influenced Governor Camp- 
bell in the choice of the name for his home. 

Through the various changes of ownership, the orig- 
inal plan, both in the interior and exterior of the house, 
has been wonderfully preserved. Two striking features 
are the long drawing room, possibly sixty feet in length, 
fifteen in height (public receptions were held here) ; and a 
beautiful spiral staircase, beginning in the front hall and 
extending to the attic. The steps of solid cedar, elabo- 
rately hand carved on the outside, are as sound as ever. 

The bed-room of Mrs. Campbell is still to be seen; for 
years her bed remained there, — an elaborately carved 
affair, with tester, after the fashion of that day. So 



478 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

lofty was this couch that it was impossible for a lady 
to reach it unassisted. At bedtime her maid was dis- 
patclied to call a stately man-servant, her special attend- 
ant. He would come, carrying a quaint ladder, which, 
with great dignity, he would place for Mrs. Governor that 
she might make the ascent in safety. 

A few words as to his favorite servant, David Bird 
by name. He belonged to a type now almost entirely 
extinct, loyal and faithful, indispensable to those whom 
he served. Not only was he thoroughly accomplished in 
all the craft of house life of the day, but his imposing 
stature, impressive dignity, and polished manners rendered 
him truly ornamental. He lived to ripe old age, and upon 
his death in recent years the funeral train was largely 
composed of the descendants of his white friends of earlier 
days. 

Mrs. Campbell was the possessor of beautiful hands, 
of which she took great care. She was equally careful of 
her gloves, which she desired always to be immaculate; so 
much so, that when she had to undergo the many hand- 
shakes incidental to public receptions she always wore a 
larger second pair of gloves until the handshaking was 
over, when she would discard this covering and display her 
hands in all the glory of gloves, perfect in fit, immaculate 
in freshness. 

The population of that section of Virginia beyond the 
mountains was one in which the Scotch-Irish element 
predominated. Physically hardy, mentally and spiritually 
vigorous, " liberty " was the very keynote to this people's 
being. From father to son and from mother to daughter 
was transmitted the spirit of protest against any abridg- 
ment of the divine principle of personal freedom, and ac- 
companying this spirit in its transmission the will and 
the power to act both speedily and effectively to save 
themselves and their property from bonds. 

It is doubtful if there may be found anvwhere a docu- 



BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 479 

ment which better illustrates the liberty-loving character 
of the Scotch-Irish on the frontier of Virginia than the 
Fincastle Declaration of Independence which follows : * 

FINCASTLE COUNTY (VIRGINIA) MEETING. 

In obedience to the Resolves of the Continental Congress, a 
Meeting of the Freeholders of Fincastle County, in Virginia, was 
held on the 20th day of January, 1775, who, after approving of 
the Association framed by that august body in behalf of all the 
Colonies, and subscribing thereto, proceeded to the election of a 
Committee, to see the same carried punctually into execution, 
when the following gentlemen were nominated : the Reverend 
Charles Cummings, Colonel William Preston, Colonel William 
Christian, Captain Stephen Trigg, Major Arthur Campbell, 
Major William Inglis, Captain Walter Crockett, Captain John 
Montgomery, Captain James M'Gavock, Captain William Camp- 
bell, Captain Thomas Madison, Captain Daniel Smith, Captain 
William Russell, Captain Evan Shelby, and Lieutenant William 
Edmondson. After the election the Committee made choice of 
Colonel William Christian for their Chairman, and appointed Mr. 
David Campbell to be Clerk. 

The following Address was then unanimously agreed to by the 
people of the County, and is as follows: 

To the Honourable Peyton Randolph, Esquire, Richard 
Hexry Lee, George Washixgtox, Patrick Hexry, Juxior, 
Richard Blaxd, Bexjamix Harrisox axd Edmund Pendle- 
ton, Esquires, the Delegates from this Colony who at- 
tended the Continental Congress held at Philadelphia: 

Gentlemen : Had it not been for our remote situation, and 
the Indian War which we were lately engaged in, to chastise those 
cruel and savage people for the many murders and depredations 
they have committed amongst us, now happily terminated under 
the auspices of our present worthy Governour, his Excellency the 
Right Honourable the Earl of Dunmore, we should before this time 
have made known to you our thankfulness for the very important 
services you have rendered to your country, in conjunction with 
the worthy Delegates from the other Provinces. Your noble ef- 
forts for reconciling the mother country and the Colonies, on 

* American Archives, 4th Series, vol. 1, pp. 1165—6. 



480 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

rational and constitutional principles, and your pacifick, steady, 
and uniform conduct in that arduous work, entitle you to the 
esteem of all British America, and will immortalize you in the 
annals of your country. We heartily concur in your Resolutions, 
and shall, in every instance, strictly and invariably adhere thereto. 

We assure you, gentlemen, and all our countrymen, that we 
are a people whose hearts overflow with love and duty to our lawful 
Sovereign George the Third, whose illustrious House for several 
successive reigns have been the guardians of the civil and religious 
rights and liberties of British subjects, as settled at the glorious 
Revolution ; that we are willing to risk our lives in the service of 
his Majesty, for the support of the Protestant Religion, and the 
rights and liberties of his subjects, as they have been established 
by Compact, Law, and Ancient Charters. We are heartily grieved 
at the differences which now subsist between the parent state and 
the Colonies, and most ardently wish to see harmony restored on 
an equitable basis, and by the most lenient measures that can be 
devised by the heart of man. Many of us and our forefathers left 
our native land, considering it as a Kingdom subjected to in- 
ordinate power, and greatly abridged of its liberties ; we crossed 
the Atlantic, and explored this then uncultivated wilderness, 
bordering on many nations of Savages, and surrounded by Moun- 
tains almost inaccessible to any but those very Savages, who have 
incessantly been committing barbarities and depredations on us 
since our first seating the country. These fatigues and dangers 
we patiently encountered, supported by the pleasing hope of en- 
joying those rights and liberties which had been granted ' Vir- 
ginians, and were denied us in our native country, and o: trans- 
mitting them inviolate to our posterity ; but even to Jiese remote 
regions the hand of unlimited and unconstitutional power hath 
pursued us, to strip us of that liberty and property with which 
God, nature, and the rights of humanity have vested us. We are 
ready and willing to contribute all in our power for the support of 
his Majesty's Government, if applied to constitutionally, and 
when the grants are made by our own Representatives, but cannot 
think of submitting our liberty or property to the power of a venal 
British Parliament, or to the will of a corrupt Ministry. 

We by no means desire to shake off our duty or allegiance to 
our lawful Sovereign, but on the contrary, shall ever glory in be- 
ing the loyal subjects of a Protestant Prince, descended from such 
illustrious progenitors, so long as we can enjoy the free exercise 



BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS 



481 



of our Religion as Protestants, and our Liberties and Properties 
as British subjects. 

But if no pacinck measures shall be proposed or adopted by 
Great Britain, and our enemies will attempt to dragoon us out 
of those inestimable privileges, which we are entitled to as sub- 
jects, and to reduce us to a state of slavery, we declare that we 
are deliberately and resolutely determined never to surrender them 
to any power upon earth, but at the expense of our lives. 

These are our real, though unpolished sentiments, of liberty 
and loyalty, and in them we are resolved to live and die. 

We are, gentlemen, with the most perfect esteem and regard, 
your most obedient servants. 




TYPICAL FRONTIER BLOCK HOUSE USED FOR 
PROTECTION AGAINST INDIANS 



:$i 



PART VIII 

The Eastern Shore 

THE country lying in Virginia and Maryland, be- 
tween the Chesapeake Bay and the ocean, is 
known as the Eastern Shore. 
The counties of Northampton and Accomac, 
which occupy the Virginia end of this peninsula, had 
settlers within a few years after the foundation of James- 
town. Their many advantages caused a rapid increase of 
population, and by the middle of the seventeenth century 
they were, for that time, well peopled. 

Perhaps nowhere in the world, except in remote parts 
of England itself, can the people boast of so pure an Eng- 
lish strain, and nowhere have the same families so long 
continued. Of course many names have disappeared, but 
from the lower end of Northampton County to the Mary- 
land line and from the ocean to the bay, one finds families 
living upon land on which their forefathers settled in the 
seventeenth century. These people prove the utter false- 
hood of any theories of lack of energy on the part of Vir- 
ginians of the older stock. The two counties are among 
the very richest and most prosperous agricultural sections 
in America. 

Scattered through both Accomac and Northampton are 
quaint and interesting houses so numerous that only a few 
examples can be given here. 

MT. CUSTIS 

The farm situated on Metompkin Bay, known as Mt. 
Custis, was first owned by John Michael, who came to 
Virginia from Holland about 1640. He married the 
daughter of John Custis the first, who also came to this 
country from Holland. 

John Michael left Mt. Custis to his son Adam, who, 
dying without heirs, left it to his nephew, Lieutenant- 

482 



THE EASTERN SHORE 



483 



Colonel Henry Cnstis, who with Colonel Southey Littleton 
at one time commanded the militia of Accomac and North- 
ampton Counties. 

Colonel Custis is buried in front of the house. He, 
like his Uncle Adam Michael, died leaving no children. 
He sold Mt. Custis for the nominal sum of $600.00 to his 
niece, the wife of General John Cropper, with the proviso 
that he, Henry Custis, and his wife Mathilda, were to 
occupy it and enjoy its revenues for life and at his death 
his widow was to receive an annuity of $100.00 for her life. 

Colonel Henry Custis is believed to have built the west 




MT. CUSTIS, ACCOMAC COUNTY 

end of the Mt. Custis house about 1710, while the older 
part, built by the Michaels, was found in such a bad state 
of decay that it was pulled down by the present owner. 
It had been removed from the house about 1840, by Thomas 
H. Bayly, when he built the present east side of the house, 
and was used as an outbuilding. 

On the death of the first wife of General John Cropper, 
who was the niece of Colonel Henry Custis, the farm, by 
will or gift, became the property of Margaret, the eldest 
daughter of General Cropper and wife of Colonel Thomas 
M. Bayly, who represented the First District of Virginia 
for twenty-seven years in the Congress of the United 



484 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

States. He died at Mt. Custis about 1834 and his eldest 
son, Thomas H. Bayly, became owner of the estate. 

Judge Thomas H. Bayly, at the time of his death, 
June, 1856, was chairman of the Ways and Means Com- 
mittee and also of the Committee of Foreign Affairs. He 
died just before the completion of his seventh term in Con- 
gress, as representative of the same district his father so 
long represented. Mt. Custis is now held by his only child, 
Evelyn, wife of Doctor Louis McLane Tiffany, of 
Baltimore. The Tiff anys occupy the place for five months 
each year. 

During the life of Colonel and Judge Bayly Mt. Custis 
was the scene of much hospitality and on its walls now hang 
the letters of several presidents of the United States enter- 
tained there. Much old furniture, china and a few por- 
traits still remain to show the style in which the Custises 
and Baylys lived, but many of these heirlooms have been 
scattered. As each daughter of the house married, some 
articles were given her to take to her new home. The por- 
trait of Colonel Henry Custis is still in perfect condition 
and hangs in one of the rooms, and there is also a fine por- 
trait of Tabitha, wife of John Custis, painted by Sir Peter 
Lely. 




WELBOURNE, HORNTOWN, ACCOMAC COUNTY 



THE EASTERN SHORE 



485 



WELBOURNE 

Welbourne, at Horntown, Accomac County, was built 
by Drummond Welbourne about 1780. It is a substantial 
two and a half story house, of brick. A unique feature is 
an arcade entrance at one corner. 

ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH, ACCOMAC COUNTY 

This old church was probably built about 1656. It is 
a brick building originally in the form of a cross and had a 
brick floor, high-back pews and a pulpit of antique fashion. 

In 1861 St. George's was used as a stable bv Federal 




ST. GEORGES CHURCH, PUNGOTEAGUE, ACCOMAC COUNTY 

troops and at the end of the war the venerable building was 
a complete wreck. It remained untenanted for years until 
the church people of the neighborhood determined to re- 
store it for use as a place of worship. As the transepts 
were unsafe thev were taken down, the main building re- 
built with the old bricks, and, after an interval of twenty- 
five years, services were once more held within the ancient 
walls. 



486 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

The first rector of the parish was Reverend Thomas 
Teackle, who ministered there for over forty years and 
died in 1696. The records of the parish, with the exception 
of those of modern date, have, unfortunately, all been lost. 

BROWNSVILLE 

The Brownsville plantation was granted before 1655 
to John Brown, who in his will gave 1262 acres to his son 
John Brown. The latter disappeared and the property 
came into the possession of his brother, Thomas Brown. 




BROWNSVILLE, NORTHAMPTON COUNTY 

He divided the 1262-acre tract, giving 631 acres (the 
Brownsville tract) to his daughter Sarah, wife of Arthur 
Upshur, and the other half to his daughter Anne, wife of 
Joseph Preeson, and, later, wife of Andrew Hamilton, of 
Philadelphia. 

The property descended from Sarah Brown Upshur 
through several generations to its late owner, Thomas T. 
Upshur, whose family now resides there. 

We have no tradition of any residence having been 
built on the land prior to the " Old Hall " mentioned below. 
John Brown lived in the territory now included in Ac- 
comac, and Thomas Brown also, for years after his father's 



THE EASTERN SHORE 487 

death. Thomas Brown, however, did not die on this land, 
for by his will in 1705 he gave his home place (600 acres) 
to his daughter, Elizabeth Preeson, the wife of Thomas 
Preeson, and this tract was probably the land now known 
as " T. B." because its boundaries were marked by carving 
" TB " on pine shingles and nailing them on a line of trees. 
If there was a building prior to " Old Hall," it was prob- 
ably a cheap log house. 

The " Old Hall," which stood a few feet eastward of 
the present house, had a brick at the shoulder of the south 
end chimney marked 1691, and it is believed this was in- 
tended to indicate the date of building. The south end of 
the structure was of brick, with a large Dutch bake oven 
included in it. The joists and timbers were of best heart 
pine, dressed and beaded. It was 20 feet wide, 35 feet 
long, with four rooms, a small hall and an attic and some 
curious little closets in the upstairs rooms. It probably 
had shed rooms also, while occupied by the white family, 
but after 1806 it was used for negro quarters, and about 
1898 was moved out on the farm and is now a good tenant 
house. 

The present brick house was built in 1806, by John 
Upshur, at a cost of over $10,000.00. The bricks were 
made on the farm. The brick part is 42 by 40 feet, two 
and a half stories high and is handsomely finished. The 
parlor, which is considered the handsomest old style room 
on the Eastern Shore, is embellished with hand carving; 
rope molding, mosaic work and other designs. The frame 
part of the house, 52 by 20 feet, with a cook room 16 by 20 
feet added, was built some time after the brick part of the 
house by John Upshur, who also purchased the 631 acres 
of the original tract belonging to Anne Preeson, and be- 
queathed it, with other farms, to his children in 1842. In 
1884 the land was again divided by the will of William 
Brown Upshur, and the home place now containing 300 
acres became the property of Thomas T. Upshur. 

The first of the Upshur family in Virginia was Arthur 



488 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Upshur, who emigrated from Essex, England, and settled 
in Northampton County in 1664. He patented " Upshur 
Neck " — 2300 acres in Accomac County — and in 1674 re- 
moved to that place, where he died, in 1709, in the eighty- 
fifth year of his age. His son, Arthur Upshur II, married 
Sarah Brown, who in 1734 gave Brownsville — then con- 
taining 631 acres — to their youngest son, Thomas Upshur. 
This Thomas Upshur was the father of Thomas Upshur II, 
who married Anne Stockley and was the father of John 
Upshur, the builder of the present Brownsville house. 

Thomas Upshur II was an officer in a company of 
minute men during the Revolution. 

Thomas T. Upshur IV entered the Confederate States 
Army June 8, 1861, and remained in service until early in 
May, 1865, when he was paroled by General Ord in Rich- 
mond. He was a scout for Generals R. E. Lee, R. S. 
Ewell, Jubal A. Early and Stonewall Jackson as a member 
of Company B, Thirty-ninth Virginia Battalion of 
Cavalry. 

Mr. Upshur, who died in 1910, was long an earnest 
student of the history and genealogy of the Eastern Shore. 



VAUCLUSE, NORTHAMPTON COUNTY 



THE EASTERN SHORE 
VAUCLUSE 



489 



Vaucluse, in Church Neck, near the month of Hungar's 
Creek, was once the residence of the distinguished states- 
man, Abel P. Upshur. Here many noted guests, includ- 
ing President Tyler and his cabinet, were entertained. 
Vaucluse is now owned by the Wilkins family, who bear 
another ancient Eastern Shore name. 

WEST HOUSE 

The West House, on Deep Creek, is shown by its hip 
roof and great chimneys to be one of the oldest houses on 




WEST HOUSE, DEEP CREEK 



the Eastern Shore. It was once the home of Revil West, 
son of Anthony West and Eleanor Revil, and a member 
of one of the oldest families of this part of Virginia. 

DUCKINGTON 

Duckington is picturesquely situated on Mattawaman 
Creek, about three miles from Eastville. This long two- 



490 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

storied frame house was an old residence of the Eastern 
Shore family of Corbin. 




DUCKINGTON, NORTHAMPTON COUNTY 





CESSFORD, EASTVILLE, NORTHAMPTON COUNTY 

CESSFORD 

Cessford, at Eastville, Northampton County, was long 
the home of the Kerr family. Its name is derived from a 



THE EASTERN SHORE 



491 



seat of the famous Scotch border clan of Kerr. The Vir- 
ginia house is an attractive residence surrounded by many 
fine trees. 

SHEPHERD'S PLAIN 

Shepherd's Plain, in Accomac County, is of unknown 
age, though evidently an ancient house. As is the case with 




tdjf 



jteB&s®^— 





SHEPHERD'S PLAIN, ACCOMAC COUNTY 

many Eastern Shore houses, the waters of the creek come 
up to the yard. The name Accomac, originally Accow- 
make or Accawmacke, is derived from the Indian chief who 
ruled there, and was formerly the designation of the whole 
of the Eastern Shore of Virginia. 

About 1902 Shepherd's Plain came into the possession 
of Dr. A. T. L. Quesian, who restored it to its pristine 
beauty. 

THE MELVIN HOUSE 

The Melvin House, near Horntown, was built in 1775. 
It is a type of the smaller story and a half, dormer-win- 
dowed house. The long " sweep " of the well nearby adds 
to its air of antiquity. 



492 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 




MELV1N HOUSE, ACCOMAC COUNTY 




CUSTIS HOUSE DEEP CREEK 



THE CUSTIS HOUSE 

The Custis House, Deep Creek, is not very large but 
bears every mark of antiquity. Here formerly lived many 
generations of the Custis family descended from a brother 



of John Custis, of Arlington. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 
CALLAHAN HOUSE 



493 



One of the quaintest old houses on the Eastern Shore 
was that at Locust Mount, Accomac County, which was 
the residence of Reverend Griffin Callahan ( 1 759—1 H:i:5 ) , 
who was a pioneer Methodist minister in the West, and 
was long one of the leading men in his church. 




CALLAHAN HOUSE, LOCUST MOUNT, ACCOMAC COUNTY 

MARGARET ACADEMY 

Margaret Academy was chartered in 1787. The 
original minute book of the trustees is still in existence. 
The spacious and substantial brick house will be a sur- 
prise to those who are under the impression that there was 



494 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

hardly any equipment for secondary education in Virginia 
at that day. 




MARGARET ACADEMY, ACCOMAC COUNTY 




WALLOP HOUSE. ACCOMAC COUNTY 



WALLOP HOUSE 

On Mosquito Creek, near Chincoteague Bay, is an 
ancient structure, long the residence of an old family from 
which it takes its name. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 



495 



MOUNT WHARTON 

This old home of the Parramore family is situated on 
Watts's Bay, opposite Assateague Island. It is evidently 
an exceedingly old house. 




■BS9S 



MOUNT WHARTON, ACCOMAC COUNTY 

HUNGARS CHURCH, NORTHAMPTON 
COUNTY 

By T. B. Robertson 

Surrounded and concealed by a body of pine woods 
in the midst of an ancient grove of sycamores some seven 
miles north of Eastville is old Hungars Episcopal Church. 
It is beautifully located on the north side of Hungars 
creek at the head of navigation for small craft, and near 
by is the old village of Bridgetown, at which in the early 
years of the settlement the courts were held. 

Hungars Church is one of the oldest church edifices in 
the State, and has been in use for over two hundred years, 
for the tradition is that it was built about 1690 to '95, and 
there are evidences that this is the actual fact, though the 
exact record is unfortunately lost. 



496 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

Hungars parish was made soon after the county was 
established and the first minister was Rev. Wm. Cotton, 
and the first vestry was appointed in 1635. The following 
is the order made at that time: 

"At a court holden in Accawmacke the 14th day of 
Sept. 1635; " (Northampton being then called Accomack.) 

" At this court Mr. Wm. Cotton, minister, presented 
an order of the court from James City, for the building 
of a Parsonage house upon the Glebe land which is by 








■■HmnnMMi 



..or- . - 






HUNGARS CHURCH, NORTHAMPTON COUNTY 

this board referred to be ordered by the vestry and because 
there have heretofore been no formal vestry nor vestry- 
men appointed, we have from this present day appointed 
to be vestrymen those whose names are underwritten: 

' Wm. Cotton, minister, Capt. Thos. Graves, Mr. 
Obedience Robins, Mr. John Howe, Mr. Wm. Stone, Mr. 
Burdett, Mr. Wm. Andrews, Mr. John Wilkins, Mr. Alex. 
Mountjoy, Mr. Edw. Drew, Mr. Wm. Beniman, Mr. 
Stephen Charlton. 

" And further we do order that the first meeting of the 



THE EASTERN SHORE 497 

syd, vestrymen shall be upon the feast day of St. Michael 
the Arch-Angel, being the 29th day of September." 

In accordance with that order of the court the vestry 
meeting was held and record entered of the same as follows : 

" A vestry heald, 29th day of Sept. 1635. 

" PRESENT 

" Capt. Thomas Graves, Mr. John Howe, Mr. Edward 
Drew, Mr. Obedience Robins, Mr. Alex. Mount joy, Mr. 
Wm. Burdett, Mr. Win. Andrews, Mr. Win. Stone, Mr. 
Wra. Beniman." 

At this meeting an order was made providing for build- 
ing the parsonage house. 

At one time there were two parishes, the upper or 
Hungars, and the lower. In 1691 the parishes were united, 
as will be noted in the order following, entered in the old 
records in the clerk's office: 

" Att a council held att James City, Apr. the 21st, 1691. 

" PRESENT 

" The Rt. Hono'ble Francis Nicholson Esq. Lt. Gov. &. 
council. 

" Major John Robins and Mr. Thos. Harmonson, 
Burgesses of the County of Northampton, on behalf of 
the County, by their petition setting forth that the said 
county is one of the smallest in the colony, doth consist of 
a small number of tithables, and is divided in two parishes, 
by reason whereof the Inhabitants of both parishes are soe 
burdened that they are not able decently to maintain a 
minister in each parish and therefore prayed the said 
parishes might be joyned in one and goe by the name of 
Hungars parish, not being desirous to infringe any gift 
given to Hungars parish, and more especially one by the 
last will of Stephen Charlton, which parishes soe joyned 
will not only be satisfactory to the inhabitants but make 
them capable to build a decent church and maintain an 
able divine. On consideration whereof itt is the opinion 
of this board and accordingly ordered that the whole county 

32 



498 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

of Northampton be from henceforth one parish and goe by 
the name of Hungars Parish, and that the same shall be 
noe prejudice to the gift of the aforesaid Charlton to the 
said parish of Hungars and it is further ordered that the 
Inhabitants of the sd. parish shall meet at such time and 
place as the court of the said county shall appoint and 
make choice of a vestry according to law. Cop. vera, test, 
W. Edwards, cl. cou." 

Then, in accordance with the appointment of the court, 
at a meeting of the inhabitants of the said county of North- 
ampton, at the court house thereof the 22nd day of June, 
1691, the following vestrymen were elected: 

Major John Robins, Capt. Custis, Capt. Foxcroft, 
John Shepheard, Benj. Stratton, Priece Davis, Benjamin 
Nottingham, John Powell, Jacob Johnson, Thomas Eyre, 
John Stoakley, Michael Dickson. It was evidently soon 
after this step was taken that the Hungars church building 
was erected. 

The church in lower Northampton was perhaps older 
than Hungars. It was situated in what is locally known 
as the Magothy Bay section and on the old Arlington es- 
tate. Unfortunately it was allowed to go to decay and in 
1824 the walls and some of the material was sold. Nothing 
but the foundation is now left to mark the spot. The com- 
munion set, now used in Christ Church, Eastville, was " a 
gift of John Custis of W m burgh to the lower church of 
Hungars Parish, 1741," according to the inscription. The 
plate now used in Christ Church is inscribed "Ex dono 
Francis Nicholson," who was Lieutenant Governor 1690-2, 
and again later. 

Christ Church, Eastville, was erected as near as can be 
stated in 1826 or 7. 

Old Hungars Church became untenable in 1850 so as 
to be unfit for holding services. 

It was repaired in 1851 and reduced somewhat in size, 
but practically unchanged in general appearances from its 
original style. It is an interesting landmark that has stood 
like a beacon light to many generations. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 



4<)<) 



BOWMAN'S FOLLY * 

Edmund Bowman, who was a justice of Accomac in 
1663, a sheriff, burgess, and successively held the military 
titles of Captain and Major, built the old mansion house 
known as Bowman's Folly on Folly Creek. His daugh- 
ter Gertrude married John Cropper, a young Englishman, 
and several generations of the descendants of the Cropper 
family inherited and lived at Bowman's Folly. The most 
distinguished was John Cropper (1755-1821), a distin- 




BOWMAN'S FOLLY, ACCOMAC COUNTY 

guished officer of the Virginia Continental Line, serving 
with the rank of Colonel, afterwards a General of State 
Militia. 

The original house built by Edmund Bowman was 
pulled down and the present one built by General Cropper 
in 1815. Before the dwelling was built the General's 
slaves were taken from their usual labors and for several 

* Barton H. Wise in Virginia Historical Collection, vol. xi, pp. 
275-315. 



500 VIRGINIA HOMES AND CHURCHES 

months made to haul earth to make a mound upon which 
to build. 

After General Cropper's death, Bowman's Folly be- 
came the property of Thomas R. Joynes, a son of Colonel 
Levin Joynes. Mr. Joynes was clerk of Accomac County 
for seventeen years, an able lawyer, and a member of the 
Virginia Convention of 1829-30. He was the father of 
Judge W. T. Joynes, of the Court of Appeals, and Dr. 
Levin S. Joynes, of Richmond. In 1822 he moved to 
Bowman's Folly, which he called Montpelior, and resided 
there until his death in 1858. In 1870 the property had 
passed into the hands of the Browne and later the Gibb 
family, and in about 1889 became the property of Mr. 
John Cropper, a grandson of the General. 







§ 



'8**^ 



vA 



ROSELAND, AT ACCOMAC 

ROSELAXD 



" Roseland," the home of Mr. and Mrs. William Parra- 
more Bell, is situated at Accomac Court House. The 
house was built in the early part of the nineteenth century 



THE EASTERN SHORE 501 

by a Mr. Walker, who married Anne Parramore, and is 
one of the best examples of the style which obtained in 
the early days of the Eastern Shore of Virginia. It is long 
and rambling and there are three stairways leading to 
three upper floors entirely separated from each other. In 
the front yard is a beautiful grove of trees, some of them 
very rare, and were brought from South America. The 
grove and much of the shrubbery was planted by Dr. S. S. 
Satchell when he owned it and made his home there. 




OLD WARREN HOUSE 
See page 57 



INDEX 



Abraham's Delight, Frederick Co., 449 

Acquia Church, Stafford Co., 354, 356 

Adams, Herbert B., 405; Dr. John, 121; John (Pres.), 406, 424; John 

Quincy, 41; Richard, 121 
Airville, Gloucester Co., 246 
Airwell, Hanover Co., 285 
Alexander, Rev. Archibald, 447 
Allan, Algernon Sidney, 459; John, 155, 196; Mrs., 177; Allan House, 

Richmond, 154 
Allan, Algernon Sidney, 459; John, 155, 196; Mrs., 177; Allan House, 

62; David Hume, 459; Edgar (Allan), 459; Elizabeth Bray, 62; 

Mrs. Elizabeth P., 178; James, 50, 60; Joseph, 172; Katherine, 53; 

L. M., 460; Maj. Richard, 172; Robert Owen, 459; William, 61 ; 

William, Jr., 61 
Allerton, Elizabeth, 309; Isaac I, 309, 325; Isaac II, 309 
Ambler, Jacqueline, 229; Mrs. Jacqueline, 229; Mary Willis, 229 
Ampthill, Chesterfield Co., 106; Cumberland Co., 197 
Andrews, William, 496, 497 ; Anthony, Caroline, and Christopher, 200 
Appomattox, Prince George Co., 91 

Archer, Dr. Branch T., 167; Mrs. Robert S., 210; Archer House, Rich- 
mond, 153 

503 



504 INDEX 

Arlington, Alexandria Co., 371 

Armistead, Charles Byrd, 254; Henry, 252, 253; Jane, 174; Hon. John, 

243, 252, 334; Judith, 334; Lucy, 253; Maria Carter, 253, 354; 

Martha, 253; Mary, 378; Robert, 378; William, 252, 253, 254 
Atkinson, Agnes, 457; Thomas, 389 
Auburn, Mathews Co., 233 

Bacon, Nathaniel, 59; Bacon's Castle, Surry Co., 50 

Bagby, George W., 191, 209 

Bailey, Fleming, 351 

Baker, Catherine and Lawrence, 60; Nicholas St. John, 342 

Ball, James, Sr., 312, 320; James, Jr., 310, 312; James F., 310; James 

Kendall, 312; Joseph, 312, 320; Mary, 312; William B., 161; 

William Lee, 312 
Banister, John I, John II, and John III, 97; John Monro and Theodrick, 

98 ; Banister Lodge, Halifax Co., 438 
Barber, William, 67 

Barbour, James (Gov.), 391 ; Johnson, 392; Philip Pendleton, 390, 392 
Barboursville, Orange Co., 391 
Barney, Mr. and Mrs. Edward E., 6 
Barnsfield, King George Co., 347 
Barton, Richard Peters, 449 
Barry, William T., 381 
Bassett, Ann Maria (Dandridge), 31 ; Burwell, George Washington, 

John and William, 265; Bassett Hall, Williamsburg, 31 
Battersea, Dindwiddie Co., 96 
Baylor, Mrs. George, 454 

Bayly, Margaret (Cropper), 482; Thomas H., 483, 484 
Beale, Elizabeth, 334; Winifred, 337 
Beattie, H. C, 212 
Beaumont, Powhatan Co., 1 65 

Bell, David, 187; Mr. and Mrs. William Parramore, 500 
Belleville, Gloucester Co., 234 
Bellevue, Halifax Co., 437 
Bellmont, Buckingham Co., 186 
Belmead, Powhatan Co., 168 
Beniman, William, 496, 497 
Bennett, Mr. and Mrs. Charles S., 414 
Berkeley, Carter (M.D.), 282, 285; Carter Nelson, 285; Edmund, 217 

Lady Frances, 59, 60; John, 110; Kitty, 285; Nelson I, 282 

Nelson II, 285; Norborne, Baron de Botetourt, 13; Richard, 86 

Sir William, 59, 89, 102; Berkeley, Charles City Co., 86 
Bernard, John H., 296 
Berry Hill, Halifax Co., 435 



INDEX 505 

Beverly, Carter, 383; Harry, 292, 303; Peter, 292; Robert (emigrant), 

292, 307; Robert I and Robert II, 295; Robert III, 292; Col. 

William, 292, 346 
Bewdley, Lancaster Co., 312 

Bickley, Joseph and Celia, 418; Sir William (Bart), 418 
Bird, David, 478 

Black Heath, Chesterfield Co., 160, 16'1 
Black, James, 256 
Bladen, Anne, 322 
Bladensfield, Richmond Co., 322 
Blair, Anne, 97; James, 13; John, 15, 26, 97; John, Jr., 16; Blair 

House, Williamsburg, 15 
Bland, Elizabeth, 292; Giles, 89; John, 89; Martha, 97; Richard, 292, 

479; Theodrick, 82, 85, 97, 206 
Blandfield, Essex Co., 292 
Blandford Church, Petersburg, 92 
Blennerhassett, 133 
Blow, A. A., 234 
Blunt, Miss, 70 
Boiling, Mary (of Chellow), 95; Mary (of Bollingbrook), 94; Richard, 

184; Robert, 94, 95; Robert, Jr., 95; Robert (emigrant), 184; 

Thomas and William, 184; Boiling Hall, Goochland Co., 183; 

Boiling Island, Goochland Co., 184 
Bollingbrook, Petersburg, 94 
Booker, Mr., 423 

Booth, Edwin, 57; Fannie, 234; George, 231 ; Thomas, 234 
Boscobel, Stafford Co., 351, 354 
Botetourt, Lord, 18, 28, 280 

Bouldin, Mary, 424; Powhatan, 423; Wood, 441 
Boulware, Mrs. Aubin Lee, 469 

Bowdoin, John T. and Sallie Elizabeth Courtney, 58 
Bowles, James and Mary, 253 

Bowman, Edmund, Gertrude, and Bowman's Folly, Accomac Co., 499 
Boyd, Mrs. H. McKendree, 231 
Boyd, Robert, 14 
Brackett's, Louisa Co., 210 
Braddock, Edward, 367 
Bradley, Mrs., 53 

Brafferton Building, William and Mary College, 14 
Brandon, Prince George Co., 63 
Bransford, Mrs., 104 
Braxton, Carter and George, 268 
Bray, Elizabeth, 60 
Brayne, Butler, 306 
Bremo and Upper Bremo, Fluvanna Co., 187, 191 



506 INDEX 

Brewster, William, 309 

Broekenbrough, John, 130; John W v 177 

Brook Hall, Washington Co., 466 

Brook Hill, Henrico Co., 113 

Brooks, Alexander, 141 

Brown, Alexander, 200; Anne, 486; John, 486; Sarah, 486, 488; 
Thomas, 486, 487; Henry, Rev. Samuel, Henry Peronneau and 
John Thompson, 445 

Browne, Henry, 58; Sallie Edwards, 58; William (of Mass.), 268; 
William Burnet, 268, 269 

Brownsville, Northampton Co., 486 

Bruce, Alexander, 437 ; Charles, 428, 429, 430, 435 ; Mrs. Charles, 429, 
430; Ellen, 134; James, 421, 428, 435; James Coles, 428, 435; 
Sallie, 134 

Bruton Church, Williamsburg, 16 

Bryan, John Randolph, 250, 351 ; John Stewart, 113; Joseph, 113, 251, 
351 ; Mr. and Mrs. Joseph, 9 

Bryce, James, 41 

Bucke, Parson, 5 

Buford, A. S., 158 

Bullock, David, 159, 182; Bullock House, Richmond, 158, 159 

Burdett, Mr. and William, 496, 497 

Burgess, Robert, 50 

Burnet, Gilbert, Mary and William, 268 

Burnside, Gen., 351 

Burr, Aaron, 133, 138, 146 

Burwell, Abigail, 226; Agnes, 459; Carter, 53, 57; Elizabeth, 89; 
George, 452; George Harrison, 454, 457; George Harrison, Jr., 
457; Lewis I and Lewis III, 226; Lewis II, 226, 229, 252; Lewis 
IV (of Carter's Creek), 226; Martha, 252; Nathaniel (of Carter's 
Creek), 226; Nathaniel (of Carter's Grove), 57, 452, 453, 454, 
457; Rebecca, 28, 229; Robert Carter, 458; Sarah Nelson, 458; 
Townsend, 457 

Byars, James M., 467, 468; William, 466, 467 

Bvrd, Anne, 83, 253, 347; Elizabeth, 21; Elizabeth Hill, 385; Evelyn, 

67, 83, 85; Evelvn Taylor, 68, 69; George H., 70; Jane, 83; 
William I (of Westover), 81, 85, 292; William II (of Westover), 
114, 172, 174, 182, 253, 437; Col. William III (of Westover), 67, 

68, 83, 253, 347, 385, 46l ; Wilhemina, 83 

Cabell, Alice Winston, 203; Clifford, 203; Mrs. Hartwell, 196; James 
Alston, 196; Joseph Carrington, 201; Margaret, 205; Mayo, 200; 
Nathaniel Francis, 198, 199; Nicholas, 198; Nicholas, Jr., 198; 
Philip B., 202; Samuel Jordan, 202; William I (emigrant), 198, 
199; William II, 199, 205; William III, 200; William H., 157, 200 



INDEX 507 

Callahan, Griffin, 493; Callahan House, Accomac Co., 493 
Camm, Sallv, 203 

Campbell, Mrs., 477; Rev. Archibald, 323; Arthur, 479; Charles, 63; 
David (Gov.), 476; Mrs. David, 178; Ferdinand Stuart, 323; John 
A., 476; " Parson," 323; Sarah Buchanan, 4-70; Thomas, 323, 424; 
William, 466, 479; William B., 476, 177 
Caskie House, Richmond, 153 
Castle Hill, Albemarle Co., 396 
Catlett, Edward and Thomas, 300 

Carlyle, John, 367; Carlyle House, Alexandria, .".(17, 368 
Carr, Dabney, 28 
Carracci, 402 

Carrington, Charles S., 443 ; Edward, 442 ; Col. Edward, 437 ; Henry, 
431 ; John B., 437; Mildred, 427; Paul I, 441, 442; Paul II, 427; 
Walter and William, 442 
Carter, Anne (of Corotoman), 89; Anne (of Shirley), 276, 277; Anne 
Hill, 103, 326; Catherine Spotswood, 282; Charles (of Shirley), 
103, 282; Charles (of Cleve), 83, 103, 253, 268, 346, 347; Edward 
(of Blenheim), 308, 384, 404, 411 ; Edward (of Cleve), 347; Eliza- 
beth(of Blenheim), 308; Elizabeth(of Corotoman), 57, 226; Eliza- 
beth (of Shirley), 103; Elizabeth Hill, 83; Elizabeth Hill Farley, 
385; George I (of Oatlands), 375; George II (of Oatlands), 376; 
Mrs. George, 202; John (of Corotoman), 319; John (of Shirley), 
83, 102, 276 ; John C, 41 1 ; Judith, 223, 268 ; " Kitty," 285 ; Landon 
(of Cleve), 347; Landon (of Sabine Hall), 40, 83, 333, 334, 337, 
346; Landon II (of Sabine Hall), 337; Lucy, 349; Maria, 253; 
Mary (of Cleve), 103; Mary (of Lancaster), 202; Robert (of Albe- 
marle), 411; Robert (Councillor), 29, 321, 322, 375, 376; Robert 
(" King "), 57, 68, 89, 102, 223, 226, 276, 316, 319, 321, 322, 333, 
346, 349, 375, 384, 385; Robert (of Shirley), 276; Robert H., 411 ; 
Robert Randolph, 103; Robert Wormeley I and Robert Wormeley 
II, 337; St. Leger Landon, 347; Mrs. Thomas H., 231; William 
Champe, 384 
Carter Hall, Clarke Co.,^^ Carter House, Williamsburg, 29 ; Carter's 
Creek, Gloucester Co., 225: Ca rter's G ra ve. Jame s City Co., 53, 57 
Carver, D. C, 400 

Cary, Anne, 172; Archibald, 106, 172, 187; Henry, 106; Judith, 187; 
* Mary, 32; Sarah, 32; Wilson Miles, 281; Cary House, Williams- 
burg, 32 
Cedar Grove, New Kent Co., 258 
Cessford, Northampton Co., 490 
Chamberlayne, Lucy Parke, 113; Thomas, 83 
Charlton, Stephen, 496, 497, 498 
Chastellux, Marquis de, 74, 84, 96, 280, 464, 474 



508 INDEX 

Chatham, Stafford Co., 349, 351 

Chelsea, King William Co., 266 

Cheney, Clarence G., 441 ; Maynard A., 247 

Chesterfield Court House, 162 

Chicheley, Sir Henry, 287 

Chinn, Henrietta, 344 

Chrenshaw, Lewis D., 134 

Christ Church, Alexandria, 365, 367; Lancaster Co., 316 

Christian, Letitia and Robert, 260; William, 479 

Church, Yorktown, 38 

Church Hill, Gloucester Co., 325 

Claiborne, Jlexb_ert A., 266 ; William Burnett, 269 

Claremont, SurryCo.^JftSp 

Clark, Miss, 20*9; CoffiC 247, 349; G. R., 162; John, 440; Mr. and 
Mrs. William H., 438, 439, 440 

Clay, Henry, 41, 145, 250 

Claybrook, Willoughby Newton, 333 

Cleve, King George Co., 346 

Clifton, Clarke Co., 459; Cumberland Co., 186 

Clopton, John Bacon, 160 

Clover Forest, Prince Edward Co., 420 

Clover Lea, Hanover Co., 264 

Coalter, Elizabeth, 351 ; Elizabeth Tucker, 251 ; John, 350; St. George, 
351 

Cochran, Senator, 291 

Cocke, Allen, 53; Ann Blows, 198; Benjamin, 53, 60; Bowler I and 
II, 173; Cary C, 188, 191; Edmund Randolph, 174; Mrs. Eliza- 
beth R., 177; James Powell, 104; John Hartwell, 168, 187, 198; 
John Preston, 174; Lelia, 188; Mary, 188; Philip St. George, 58, 
168; Richard I, 104, 173; Richard II, Richard III, 173; Sarah, 
206, 207; T. L. P., 177; Thomas, 104; Thomas Lewis Preston, 
174; Mrs. W. R. C„ 191; William, 173, 174; William Armistead, 
173; William Fauntleroy, 174 

Coke, John, 31 ; Senator, of Texas, 31 

Coleman House, Williamsburg, 25 

Coles, Elizabeth, 414; Isaac y 427; Isaac H., 442; John I, 413, 414, 417, 
442; John II, 414; John III, 415; Mildred Howell, 442; Tucker, 
417; Walter, 414, 442; Walter R., 414; William, 414 

Cook, Mistress, 367 

Copein, William, 354 

Corbin, Miss, 385; Anne and Henry, 343; Richard, 342, 343 

Cornwallis, Charles, Lord, 6, 37, 84, 275 

Cotton, William, 496 

Court House and Green, Williamsburg, 23 



INDEX 509 

Cox, Presley, 331 

Coxe, Anne, 1 1 .'> 

Craighead, Alexander, 465 

Crockett, Walter, 479 

Cropper, John, 483, 499, 500; Mrs. John, 483 

Crowford, Benjamin, 473; Thomas, 145 

Crump, Otway, 167; W. W., 129; Crump House, Richmond, 126 

Culpeper, Lord, 60, 447 

Cumberland, Duke of, 396 

Cumberland Court House Tavern. 196 

Cummings, Arthur C, 477; Charles, 179 

Cunningham, Mr., 153; Edward and Francis, 181 

Custis, Capt., 498; Daniel Parke, 266; George Washington Parke, 371 ; 

Henry, 483; John I, 482, 492; John (of Arlington), 266; John 

(of Williamsburg), 498; Martha, 258; Mary Ann Randolph, 371; 

Mrs. Mathilda, 483; "Nelly," 304, 361; Tabitha, 484; Custis 

House, 492 
Custom House, Yorktown, 37 

Dabnev, Dr. and Virginius, 237 

Daley," T. R., 40 

Dandridsre. William, 267 

Daniel, John W., 431 ; Mary and William, 200 

Davis, Jefferson, 134; Priece, 498; Westmoreland, 377 

Deans, Josiah, 241 

De Haas, Wille, 173, 474 

Delancy, Gov., 367 

Delaware, Thomas, Lord, 3 

Dickens, Charles, 130, 155 

Dickson, Michael, 498 

Digges, Cole and Mary, 68; Dudley, 253 

Dinwiddie, Robert (Gov.). 21, 367 

Ditchley, Gloucester Co., 233; Northumberland Co., 309 

Divers. George, 410 

Dix, Morgan, 430 

Dixon, John, 246; Thomas, 237 

Dobbs, Gov., 367 

Donald, Benjamin A., 203 

Doswell. Thomas, 286 

Douthat. Fieldine- Lewis and Robert, 73 

Dover, Goochland Co., 178 

Downman, Raleigh, 321 

Drew, Edward. 496, 497; Peyton, 158 

Drewry, Augustus, 85 

Drvsdale. Gov., 18 



510 INDEX 

Duekington, Northampton Co., 490 
Dudley, Bishop, 126 
Dunham Massie, Gloucester Co., 234 
Dunmore, Lord (Gov.), 18, 23, 26, 40, 41, 479 
Dupont, William, 389 

Dyer, Celia Bickley, Francis Bickley, John, Robert, Maj. and Mrs. 
Samuel, Sarah, Thomas and William Hay, 418; Samuel, 417, 418 

Eagle Point, Gloucester Co., 250 

Early, Jubal Anderson, 488 

Eastern Shore Chapel, Princess Anne Co., 49 

Edge Hill, Albemarle Co., 395 

Edgewood, Nelson Co., 201 

Edgewood and Airwell, Hanover Co., 282 

Edmundson, William, 479 

Edward VII, King, 19 

Edwards, Susannah, 367 ; W., 498 

Effinger, Maria C, 209 

Elliot, James W., 432 

Elmington, Gloucester Co., 236 

Elsing Green, King William Co., 267 

Eltham, New Kent Co., 264 

Elthonhead, Agatha, 287 tf/3 

Ennisocthy, Albemarle Co., ^13 

Eppes, Francis I, 91 ; Col. Francis III, Lt.-Col. Francis, John, John 

Wayles, Lucy, Mary and Richard, 110; Francis (of Eppington), 

110, 112; Dr. Richard, 92 
Epping Forest, Lancaster Co., 312 
Eppingston, Chesterfield Co., 110 
Ernest, Mrs., 467 

Estouteville, Count de, 415; Albemarle Co., 415 
Eustis, William Corcoran, 376 
Evelyn, George, 68 
Ewel'l, R. S. s 488 

Exchange, The, Gloucester Co., 237 
Eyre, Thomas, 498 

Fairfax, George, 32 ; George William, 363 ; Henry, 375 ; John M., 374, 

375; Mrs. John M., 374; Thomas, Lord, 246*, 276, 447, 448 
Falls and Fall Hill, The, Fredericksburg, Va., 305 
Farley, Culpeper Co., 384; James Park and Maria Champe, 385 
Farmington, Albemarle Co., 410 
Farnham Church, Richmond Co., 333 
Fauquier, Francis (Gov.), 18 



INDEX 511 

Felgate, Mrs. Mary, Robert and William, 40 

Fielding, Frances, 304 

Fithian, Philip Vickers, 321 

Fitzgerald, J. H., 206 „ , _ 

Fitzhngh, Anne, 300; E. H. and John, 300; Henrietta, Sarah Stuart, 
Thomas II (of Boscobel) and William Henry, 352; Henry and 
Marv Randolph, 350; Henry, 68, 350; Henry (of "Bedford") and 
Thomas (of Boscobel), 351; Henry (of Eagle's Nest), 349; Lucy, 
68; Mary Lee, 371 ; William (of "Chatham"), 319, 350, 371 J Wil- 
liam I, 350, 351 

Fleming, Judith, 171; Tarleton and Thomas Mann, 182 

Flower de Hundred, Prince George Co., 75 

Floyd, John B. (Gov.) and Mrs. John B., 470 

Fontaine, William, 214 

Forbes, Murray, 307; Mrs. Murray, 306 

Fork Church, Hanover Co., 278 

Fort Lewis, Bath Co., 473 

Foster, Mrs., 14 

Four Mile Tree, Surry Co., 57, 59 

Fowle, Mr., 413 

Fox, David and William, 321 

Franklin, Benjamin, 367 

Frascati, Orange Co., 390 

Frazer, James and William, 475 

Fultz, Frederick, 473 

Gale, George, 249 

Gallego, Joseph, 155 

Gait, James, 196; William, 195 

Gamble, Agnes and Elizabeth, 155; Robert, 156 

Gamble House, Richmond, 156, 157 

Gannaway, J. C, 187 

Gardiner, Julia, 74 

Garnett, G. Taylor, 233 

Garrett House, Williamsburg, 31 

Gaymont, Caroline Co., 296 

George III, King, 480 

Gerrard, Thomas, 325 

Gifford, Mr., 161; Catherine Waldron, 166 

Gilmer, Francis W., Mildred, and Thomas, 412; George, 411 

Glasgow, Ellen, 20 

Glenroy, Gloucester Co., 243 

Gloucester Court House, 256 

Goldsborough, Mrs., 231 

Gooch, William (Gov.), 173, 449 



512 INDEX 

Gordon, Elizabeth and Thomas, 384; Gulielma, 69 

Gordonsdale, Fauquier Co., 384 

Gorsuch, Ann, 238 

Goshen, Gloucester Co., 243 

Gosnold, Bartholomew, 1 

Gouveneur, Mrs., 374 

Graham, Robert, 160 

Grant, Ulysses S. (Pres.), 76, 92 

Grattan, Catherine and John, 156 

Graves, Thomas, 496, 497 

Gray, James, 149 

Gray and Clopton Houses, Manchester, 159, 160 

Green Hill, Campbell Co., 421 

Green Plains, Mathews Co., 230 

Green Springs, James City Co., 59 

Green, Thomas, 141 

Green Valley, Bath Co., 475 

Greenfield, Charlotte Co., 432 

Greenway Court, Clarke Co., 447 

Gregory, Frances, Mildred Washington, and Roger, 306; Judge Roger, 

26*9 
Grymes, Alice, 223; John, 57, 223; John Randolph, 288; Lucy, 57; 

Susan, 453 
Gunston Hall, Fairfax Co., 364, 365 
Gwynne, Mrs., 342; David and Elizabeth, 343 

Hamilton, Andrew, 486; Gov., 162 

Hampstead, New Kent Co., 261 

Hampton, Wade and Mrs. Wade, 470 

Hanover Court House, 271 

Hanover Court House Tavern, 274 

Harmonson, Thomas, 497 

Harper, Mrs. Mary Ann, 411 

Harris, Baratier, 165; W. E., 181 

Harrison, Mrs., 187; Benjamin (of Brandon), 67, 68, 69, 106; Ben- 
jamin (of Wakefield), 68, 89; Benjamin (of the Row), 70; Ben- 
jamin III, Benjamin IV and Benjamin VI (of Berkeley), 89; 
Benjamin V (of Berkeley), 89, 186, 479; Benjamin (Pres.), 90; 
Carter Henry, 186; Elizabeth, 337; George Evelyn, Gulielma G. 
and Isabella Ritchie, 69; Lucy, 105; Mary Randolph, 69, 197; 
Mrs. Martha Bland, 423; Nathaniel I (of Wakefield), 89; Na- 
thaniel II (of Brandon), 68, 89; Randolph, 69, 186, 197; William 
Henry (Pres.), 89, 90 

Hartsook, D. J., 412 

Harvey, Sir John (Gov.), 5, 39 



INDEX 513 

Harvie, Gabriella, 172, 395 ; John, 130, 156 

Harwood, Agnes, 73 ; Thomas G. and Walter C, 2 16 ; William, 70 
Haxall, Barton H., 389 
Hay, William, 418 
Haynes, John, 141 ; Judith, 315 
Heath, Charles, 234 
Henkel, Dr., 473 

Henry, Dorothea, 423, 424; Dorothea Dandridge, 427; Edward \\ . and 
Martha Catherine, 424; John, 423, 427; Patrick, 1*, 26, 18, 118, 
145, 162* 2^1, 2"74, 278, 2^1, 401, 424, 427> 439, 466; Patrick, Jr., 
479; William Wirt, 402, 423, 427 
Henshaw, Edmund, 389 
Hesse, Gloucester Co., 251 
Heth, Henry and William, 161 
Hickory Hill, 276 
Higginson, Lucy and Robert, 226 

Hill, Col. Edward I (of Shirley), 101 ; Col. Edward II, Col. Edward 
III (of Shirley) and Elizabeth, 102 

Hite, Joist, 448, 449 

Hobson, John B., 181 

Hockley, 245 

Holker* Adlaide, 458 

Hollinsworth, Abraham and Thomas, 449; Isaac, 449, 450 

Holt, William, 260, 261 

Hooe, Dr. A. B. and Rice, 348 

Hopkins, Mrs. Gerard, 241 

Horn, Quarter, King William Co., 269 

Houdon, 146 

Howard, A. Randolph, 351; Benjamin, 378; Mrs. Wm. Key, 304 

Howard's Neck, 181 

Howe, John, 496; John, 497 

Huger, Benjamin, 384 

Humphreys, Louise, 103 

Hungars Church, Northampton Co., 495 

Hunt, Rev. Robert, 1 

Hunter, P. S., 296 

Hurkamp, Charles H., 352 

Hutchins, Stilson, 376 

Ingleside, Charlotte Co., 431 
Inglis, William, 479 
Innes, Harry and Sally, 306 
Ionia, Louisa Co., 209 
Trving, A. D. and Washington, 391 
Isleham, Mathews Co., 230 
34 



514 INDEX 

Jackson, Andrew (Pres.), 138; Thomas Jonathan (" Stonewall"), 145, 

191, 299, 488 
Jacqueline, Edward, 6 
Jaeger, W. R., 244 
Jefferson, John, 75; Martha, 395; Martha (Skelton) and Mrs. Thomas, 

403; Peter, 27, 171; Thomas, 13, 18, 28, 75, 106, 110, 145, 171, 

201, 223, 229, 365, 389, 396, 399, 402, 403, 404, 410, 412, 419, 

421, 461, 464 
Jennings, Edmund (Gov.), 18 
Jerdone, Francis, 260 
Johns, Mrs. and John, 439 
Johnson, Dr., 29; Edward, Edward, Jr., and Philip Turpin, 1 64; Jacob, 

498; John E., 429 
Johnston, George Ben, 183; Joseph E., 439; Mary, 22 
Jones, Churchill, Hannah and William, 350; John Paul, 303; William 

A., 312; William Ashby, 233 
Jordan, Mrs. Alice, 58; Mrs. Cecily, 78; George, 59; Margaret and Col. 

Samuel, 200 
Jouett, Jack, 401 
Joynes, Thomas R., Colonel Levin, Judge W. T. and Dr. Levin S., 500 

Keith, Rev. James,, 171 

Kendall, George, 1 ; Mary and William, 309 

Kenmore, Fredericksburg, 303 

Kennon, Charles Randolph, Mrs. Nancy Randolph and William H., 165 

Kercheval, Samuel, 454, 457 

Keswick, Albemarle Co., 392 

King, William, 466 

Kinlock, Eliza, 400; Francis, 400 

Kirnan, Westmoreland Co., 323 

Kneller, Godfrey, 67 

Knox, Henry F., 90 

Lacy, J. Horace, 351 

Lafayette, Marquis de, 6, 25, 37, 94, 104, 121, 125, 146, 365, 374 

" Laird of Loch Lynn," 473 

Lancaster, Drusilla (Le Grand). John, and John A., 420; Robert A., 
421, 465 ; Robert A., Jr., 421 

Landon, Betty, 333, 346 

Lansdowne, Gloucester Co., 251 

Lee, Agnes, Custis and Mildred, 177; Arthur, 324, 326; Gen. Charles, 
206; Charles Carter, 276; Fitzhugh, 324; Francis Lightfoot, 326, 
344; Hancock, 309, 310; Henry ("Light Horse Harrv "), 103, 
324, 326, 424; Maj. Henry, Matilda, and Philip Ludwell, 326; 



INDEX 515 

John, 324, 325 ; John L., 465 ; Kendall and Lettice, 310 ; Laura Dun- 
ber, 457; Lucinda, 381; Ludwell, 345; Richard I (emigrant), 309, 
324; Richard II (of Mt. Pleasant), 325; Richard Henry, 325, 326, 
345, 479; Robert Edward, 6, 103, 105, 134, 177, 233, 248, 307, 
326, 351, 353, 367, 371, 419. 439, 451, 488; Mrs. Robert E., 266, 
372; Robert E., Jr., 277; William. 60, 310, 32 1, 326; William L., 
60; William H. F., 266, 277; Thomas (of Stratford), 325, 329, 
344. 362; Thomas Ludwell, 324, 326 

Le Grand, Alexander and Lucy (Walker), 420 

Lelv, Sir Peter, 67, 484 

Level Green, Gloucester Co., 250; Nelson Co., 206 

Levy, Jefferson, 405 

Lewis, Andrew, 148, 473; Mrs. Betty Washington. 347; Col. Charles, 
473, 474; Eleanor, 73; Fielding* 73, 303. 304, 347, 383; Frances 
Fielding, 303; Jasper, 475; John (of Augusta Co.), Thomas, and 
William, 473; John I and John II (of Warner Hall), 219; John 
III (of Warner Hall) and Lawrence, 304; Col. John, 346; 
Margaret, 382; Robert, 400; Samuel, 473, 475 ; Warner (of Warner 
Hall), 73 

Liberty Hall, Nelson Co., 198 

Lightfoot, Philip and Richard, 62 

Ligon, Mrs., 187 

Lincoln, Abraham (Pres.), 351 

Little, William A., 352 

Littlepage, John, 276 

Littleton, Southey, 483 

Logan, Gen. T. M., 196 

Long Branch, Clarke Co., 467 

Longstreet, James A., 375 

Louis XVI (of France), 421 

Lovelace, Richard, 421 

Lowland Cottage, Gloucester Co., 246 

Ludlow, Edmund, 39; George, 38 

Ludwell, Hannah, 325, 344; Hannah Philippa. 60; Lucy, 29; Philip I 
(of Green Spring), 59; Philip II (of Green Spring), 326; Philip 
III (of Green Spring), 29, 60 

Lyde, Cornelius, 342; Stephen, 343 

Lyne, Mrs. William H., 391 

Lynn, Andrew and Margaret, 473 

Lyons. Lord and Lady, 155; James, 150, 153; Peter, 401 

McCance House, The, Richmond, 141 

McCarthy. Daniel, 363 

McCartv". John Mason. 381 ; William, 378 



516 INDEX 

McClellan, Gen., 90, 105, 277 

McDowell, James, 443, 470; Mrs. James, 470; Susan, 443 

M'Gavock, James, 479 

McGuire, Emily, 461; Hunter, 145 

McMurdo, Sadie, 401 

McPhail, Paul Carrington, 441 

Macfarland, William H., 150 

Macon, Martha, 206 

Macrae, Euphan and John, 231 

Maddox, T. M., 384 

Madison, Dolly, 278, 386, 414; James (Pres.), 146, 281, 385, 386, 389, 

399, 405, 419; James, Sr., 385; Mrs. James, Sr., 388; Thomas, 479 
Magruder, Col. James, 391 
Malvern Hill, Henrico Co., 104 
Mann, John, 215, 217; Mary, 216, 219 
Mansfield, Spotsylvania Co., 304 ; near Petersburg, 98 
Mantua, Northumberland Co., 310 
Margaret Academy, Accomac Co., 493 
Marshall, John (C. J.), 14, 18, 73, 126, 133, 138, 142, 145, 146, 171, 

229, 383; Mary Willis, 73; Mrs. Thomas, 306; Thomas and Thomas, 

Jr. (of Oak Hill), 383 
Marshall House, The, Richmond, 142 
Marteni, Maria Margueretta, 421 
Martian, Nicholas, 39 
Martin, Catherine, 315; John, 67 
Mason, Armistead Thomson, 378, 381 ; Catharine, Emily, John Thomson 

and Mary, 378; George (of Gunston). 18, 145, 363. 364, 365, 377; 

John Y., 158; Stevens and Stevens Thomson, Jr., 382; Stevens 

Thomson, 377, 381 ; Mrs. Stevens Thomson, 381 ; Thomson, 377 
Masonic Temple, Williamsburg. 32 

Massie, Capt. Thomas and Maj. Thomas, 206; William, 206, 208 
Mattapony Church, King and Queen Co., 270 
Mayo, Edward C. and Elward C, Jr., 105; Joseph, 112; Maria, 157; 

* Peter H., 113, 457; Robert A., 113 
Mays, William, 351 
Mayse, Joe, 475 
Mazzei, Philip, 421 

Meade, Marianne, 167; William, 285, 319, 350, 450, 452 
Meadows, The, Washington Co.. 466 
Melvin House, The, Accomac Co., 491 
Menokin, Richmond Co., 344, 345 
Merchant's Hope Church, Prince George Co., 77 
Meriwether, Francis, 271 ; Nicholas, 399 
Michael, Adam, 482, 483; John, 482 



INDEX 517 

Michaux, Abraham, Jacob and William Walthall, 165 

Midlothian, Gloucester Co., 241 

Mildendo, Halifax Co., 442 

Mill, Benjamin, 137 

Miller, Joseph, 41 1 

Minge, Collier, 74 

Mingea, W. E., 476, 477 

Minitree, David, 54 

Minor, Garrett and Sally, 211 ; Lucius and John, 285; John B., 409 

Mitchell, Virginia, 172 

Moncure. John, 355 

Monroe, James (Pres.), 13, 18, 146, 323, 373, 37}), 385, 419 

Mont Calm, Washington Co., 476 

Montcalm, Gen., 477 

Montgomery, John, 179 

Monticello. Albemarle Co., 402 

Monticola, Albemarle Co., 412 

Montpelier, Orange Co., 385 

Monumental Church, Richmond, 125 

Moore, Anne Butler, 103, 282; Augustine and Sir Thomas, 266; Bernard, 

103, 266, 399, 400; Catherine (Spotswood), 399; E. A., 177; 

Elizabeth, 399, 401; Mary (Captive of Abb's Valley), 445; Tom, 

32, 137, 157; Richard Channing (Bp.), 126 
Moore House, York Co., 38 
Moreau, Rev. Nicholas, 259 
Morgan, Gen. Daniel, 458, 459 
Morson, James M., 134 
Morris, Gov., 367; Anne (Watson), James, James W. and Sylvanus, 

214; Elizabeth, 211 ; Mrs. R. O., 209; William, 213, 214 
Morven Park, Loudoun Co., 377 
Moryson, Francis, 19 
Mosby, John S., 375 
Moseley, Arthur and William Jr., 42; Edward, 45; Susannah and 

William, 42, 45 
Mossom, David, 259 
Mt. Airy, Richmond Co., 338, 344 
Mt. Custis, Accomac Co., 382 
Mount Vernon, Fairfax Co., 356, 362 
Mount Wharton, Accomac Co., 495 
Mountain Top, Albemarle Co., 419 
Mountain View, Clarke Co., 450 
Mount jov. Alexander, 496, 497 
Mulberry Hill, Charlotte Co., 441 
Munford. George Wythe, 237 
Murray, Honorable Miss, 155 



518 INDEX 

Mutter, John, 159 

Myers, Barton and Moses, 41; E. T. D. and Samuel, 129 

Myers House, Norfolk, Va., 41 

Napier, Lord and Lady, 155 

Natural Bridge, Rockbridge Co., 46 1 

Nelson, Elizabeth Burwell and Robert, 104; Frances, Francis, Judith, 

Capt. Thomas, 280; Rev. George W., 332; Hugh, 400, 458; Hugh, 

Jr., and Sally Page, 458; Col. Hugh, 452; James Poyntz, 281; 

Jane Byrd, 401 ; Philip, 450; Robert W., 400; Thomas (emigrant), 

279; Thomas, Jr., and Thomasia, 285; Thomas (Secy.), 37, 253; 

Gen. Thomas, 37, 39, 145, 206. 280, 279, 285, 458; William, 104, 

280 
Nelson House, Yorktown, 37 
New Market and Bullfield, Hanover Co., 286 
Newport, Capt. Christopher, 1, 70, 112, 114 
Newstead, Gloucester Co., 241 
Newton, John Brockenbrough (Bp.), 126, 333; Sarah and Willoughby, 

311; Mrs. Willoughby, 332 
Nicholas, Betsy, 33; Wilson Gary (Gov.), 18, 24, 252, 498; George A. 

and Mary Jane (Dyer), 418 
Noland, Fenton, Mrs. Mary E., Nelson Berkeley and William C, 285 
Nolting, Carl, 212; E. O. and Emily M., 412 
Nomini Hall, Westmoreland Co., 321 
North Garden, Caroline a.id Spotsylvania Cos., 279 
Nottingham, Benjamin, 498 
Norwood, Powhatan Co., 164 

Oak Hill, Fauquier Co., 383; Loudoun Co., 373 

Oak Ridge, Nelson Co., 205 

Oakland, Cumberland Co., 173; Hanover Co., 279 

Oatlands, Loudoun Co., 375 

Ogle, Anne, 344; Benjamin (Gov.), 342, 344; Samuel (Gov.), 342 

Old Brick Church, Isle of Wight Co., 49 

Old Capitol and Clerk's Office, Williamsburg, 30 

Old " Marshall " Packet Boat, 191 

Old Masonic Hall, Richmond, 122 

Old Stone Chapel, Clarke Co., 452 

Old Stone Church, Augusta Co., 447 

Oliver, Mrs., 104 

Ord. Gen., 488 

Orgain, William, 6l 

Ormesby, Caroline Co., 297 

Otter Burn, Bedford Co., 203 



INDEX 519 

Page, Agnes, Eliza, Isabella, and Powell, 457; Fanny, 285; Francis and 
Rosewell, 280; Francis Nelson, 281; Harriett Randolph, 186; 
Herbert H., John Evelyn and Robert, Kil ; James Morris, Mann, 
Richard Channing Moore, Thomas Walker and Thomas Walker, 
Jr., 392; James W. and Thomas W., 214; John (emigrant), IT, ^i 1 < > ; 
John (Gov.), 21, 28, 223, 229, 285, 454; John (of North End), 83; 
John (of Oakland), 280, 281; John (of Pagebrook), 461; John 
Cary, 185; Judith, 230; Lucy, 21, 454; Mann (of Mannsfield), 
343*; Mann I (of Rosewell), 171, 220, 223; Mann II (of Rose- 
well), 223, 230, 305, 392; Maria Judith, 171; Mathew, 216/21$; 
Robert Powell and Robert Powell, Jr., 459; Thomas Nelson, 278, 
280, 281 

Page House, Williamsburg, 21 

Pagebrook, Clarke Co., 460 

Palace Green, Williamsburg, 19 

Palladio, 409 

Palmer, Charles T., 203; George, 159 

Pannill, Ann (Morton) and William, 421; Samuel, 423 

Paradise House, Williamsburg, 29 

Paradise, Madam and John, 29 

Paramore, Anne, 501 

Parke, Daniel and Lucy, 83 

Patterson, David and Mrs. Elizabeth, 203; John, 231 

Patton, James, 479 

Paul, William, 303 

Paulett, Rev. John, 86; Sir John, 75, 86; Thomas, 75 

Paxton, Powhatan Co., 166 

Payne, Dolly and John, 281; Edward, 363; Elizabeth (Dyer) and 
George M., 418 

Peck, John, 322 

Pegram, Blair, 53 

Pelham, Peter, 18 

Pendleton, Edmund, 479 

Penn, William, 449 

Penn Park, Albemarle Co., 411 

Peterborough, Earl of, 83 

Peyton, Chandler and Robert E., 384; Sir John, 230 

Pharsalia, Nelson Co., 208 

Philips, Gen., 94, 162 

Piersey, Abraham, 70, 75 

Plain Dealing, Albemarle Co., 417 

Plater, George, 342, 34-3; Mary, 343 

Pleasants, James, 214 

Plumard, Justin Pierre. Comte de Rieux, 421 



520 INDEX 

Pocahontas, 5, 57, 96, 217 

Poe, Edgar Allan, 126, 150, 155, 159 

Pohick Church, Fairfax Co., 363 

Point-of-Fork, Fluvanna Co., 195 

Polk, Leonidas (Bp.), 451 

Pope, Alexander, 70 

Poplar Grove, Mathews Co., 231 

Porto Bello, York Co., 40 

Powder Horn, Williamsburg, 25 

Powell, John, 498 

Power, Tyrone, 93 

Powhatan, King, 96, 112 

Powhatan Court House and Tavern, 167 

Powhatan's Chimney, Gloucester Co., 217 

Poythress, Joseph and Susan Peachy, 75 

Preeson, Anne, Elizabeth and Thomas, 487; Joseph, 486 

President's House, William and Mary College, 15 

Presley, Peter and Winifred, 297 

Preston, Elizabeth and John M., 477; Elizabeth Randolph, 174; Francis, 

John S., Thomas L. and William C, 470; James Patton, 409; 

John, 468; Mrs. John, 476; William, 468, 469, 479; William 

Ballard, 469 
Preston House, Abingdon, 470 
Prestwould, Mecklenburg Co., 443 
Prosser, Evelina Matilda, 242 
Providence Forge, New Kent Co., 260 

Quesian, Dr. T. L., 491 
Quinby, Dr., 375 
Quiney, Richard, 67 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 26 

Raleigh Tavern, Williamsburg, 26 

Ramsey, Mrs. Clarice Sears, 85 

Randail. Henry S., 110 

Randolph, Alfred Magill (Bp.), 103; Anne, 68, 105, 350; Anne 
(" Nancy Wilton "), 106; Beverley and Charles H., 165; Charlotte 
Foushee, 167; Coupland and Susannah, 186; David Meade and 
Molly, 154; Edmund (Gov.), 14, 18, 33, 167; Mrs. Gabriella 
Harvie, 130; Col. Isham, 171, 186; Jane and Judith, 171; Mrs. 
Jane (Nicholas), 395; John, 133, 134, 138, 146, 250; Sir John, 33; 
John of Roanoke, 130, 196, 432, 439, 440, 441; Mary (of Dun- 
geness), 186. 197; Mary (of Edge Hill) and Sarah, 396; Mary 
(of Tuckahoe), 171, 182; Peter, 350; Peyton, 14, 18, 28, 32, 479; 
Peyton (son of Edmund), 167; Peyton (of Wilton) and William 



INDEX 521 

II (of Turkey Island), 105; Thomas (of Clarke), 457; Thomas 
(of Tuckahoe*), 71; Thomas Isham, 186; Thomas Jefferson, 70, 
395; Thomas Mann (of Edge Hill), 172, 395; Thomas Mann 
(of Tuckahoe), 130, 163, 171, 395; Virgil P., 1 Hi ; William (of 
Tuckahoe), 27, 171, 395 ; William III (of Wilton), 105, 106 
Randolph House, Williamsburg, 32 
Raspberry Plain, Loudoun Co., 377 
Ratcliff, John, 1 

Read, Clement, 432; Isaac, 432, 435; Thomas, 431 
Red Hill, Charlotte Co., 423 
Redlands, Albemarle Co., 411 
Reed, L. P. and Stanley, 26'7 
Revil, Eleanor, 489 
Richards, Mourning, 354 
Richardson, Robert, 67 
Ring, Joseph, 40 
Ringheld, York Co., 39 
Ritchie, Isabella, 69 
Rives, Alfred Landon and Amelie, 401 ; Margaret Jordan, 205; Robert, 

202, 205; William Cabell, 205, 401 
Robertson, Ann (Dver) and George, 418; Francis Smith and Wynd- 
ham (Gov.), 466; Jane Gay, 296; Thomas B., 495 

Robins, John, 497, 498; Obedience, 496, 497; Mrs. Sally Nelson, 129, 
230, 254, 256 

Robinson, Anna, 449; Mrs. Frederick, 307; Lieper Moore, 267 

Rochester, Nathaniel, 322 

Rock Castle, Goochland Co., 1 8 1 

Rocklands, Orange Co., 389 

Rogers, Randolph, 145; William L., 332 

Rolfe, John, 5; Thomas, 57 

Rolleston, Princess Anne Co., 42 

Rookings, William, 50 

Roosevelt, Theodore (Pres.), 19, 41. 419 

Rootes, Thomas Reade, 242 

Rose, John, 207 

Rosegill, Middlesex Co., 287 

Roseland. Accomac Co., 500 

Rosewell. Gloucester Co., 219 

Ross, Alexander, 449; David and Co., 417 

Rossingham, Edmund, 75 

Roxbury, Spotsylvania Co., 307 

Roy, Elizabeth,* James H., Mengo and William Henry, 231 

Russell, Madam. 466; William, 466. 479 

Rutherfoord. John (Gov.), 183; John Cole, 181. 183; Mrs. John C. 
231; Thomas, 157 



522 INDEX 

Rutherfoord House, Richmond, 157, 158 
Ryan, Thomas F., 205 

Sabine Hall, Richmond Co., 333, 337 

Sabot Hill, Goochland Co., 178 

St. Clair, Gen., 367 

St. George's Church, Accomac Co., 185 

St. John's Church, Hampton, 47; Richmond, 117 

St. Luke's Church, Isle of Wight Co., 49 

St. Mary's White Chapel, Lancaster Co., 320 

St. Paul's Church, Norfolk, 41 

St. Peter's Church, New Kent, 257 

Salisbury, Chesterfield Co.. 162, 164 

Saratoga, Clarke Co., 458 

Satchell, Dr. S. S., 501 

Saunders House, Williamsburg, 21 

Saunders, Robert, 21 

Scotchtown, Hanover Co., 281 

Scott, Miss, 443; Alexander, 354; John, Mrs. John Scott. Rev. John 

Scott and Robert Eden, 384; Winfield, 18, 42, 157 
Seawell, J. Hairston and Mollie Elliott, 247 
Sedden, Anne, 231 
Seddon, James Alexander, 134. 181, 428; Marian, 244; Sarah, 428; 

Thomas, 231 
Selden, Martha Bland, 181 
Selma, Loudoun Co., 381 
Severnby, Gloucester Co., 251 
Shakespeare, W T illiam, 67 
Sharpe, Gov., 367 
Sharpless, 381 
Shelby, Evan, 479 
Shelly, Gloucester Co., 225 
Shelter, Gloucester Co., 247 
Shelton, Mrs., 476; John, 274 
Shephard, John, 498 
Shepherd's Plain, Accomac Co., 491 
Sheridan, Philip, 412 
Sherwood, Gloucester Co., 249 
Sherwood Forest, Charles City Co., 73 
Shippen, Thomas Lee, 329, 362 
Shirley, Gov., 367 
Shirley, Charles City Co., 98 
Skelton, John Gilford and Maria Ward, 167; Josiah and Ennion Gif- 

f ord, 1 66 ; Mrs. Martha, 403 



INDEX 523 

Skipwith, Fulmer, Sir Gray, Humberston and Sir William, 448; Helen, 
417; Sir Peyton. 416, 417, 443; Selina, 416 

Smith, Abigail, 226; Armistead, 248; Arthur, 62; Caroline, 214; Charles 
Jeft'ery. 260, 26l ; Daniel, 479; Francis. Mrs. Francis and Mary, 
!()(); George \\\, 125, 277; James and .lames ML, 311 ; John, 1. 2, 
9, 57, 67, 70, 112, 114; John (of Nibley). 86; John (of Purton), 
218; Margaret, 111; Mary, 466; Philip, 381; Thomas, 246; 
William (Gov.), 115; William Patterson. 244 

Smithfield, Montgomery Co., 468 

Smvthe, Alexander. 177 

Soldier's Joy, Nelson Co., 202 

Spencer, George, 321; Nicholas. :!;>(> 

Spotswood, Alexander (Gov.), IS. 103, 267, 292, 306; Anne Katherine, 
267; Katherine, 103 

Springdale, Frederick Co., 448 

Stanard, Mrs., 150; Beverley, Beverley Chew, Larkin, and William, 
308; Hugh Mercer, John Champe, and Mrs. Martha, 309; Robert, 
149, 308; Robert C, 150, 309 

Staples, Thomas, 417 

State Capitol, Richmond, 145 

Staunton Hill, Charlotte Co., 427 

Stearns, Franklin, 385 

Steptoe, Sally, 209 

Stewart, Isobel and John, 113 

Stith, William, 171 

Stoakley, John, 498 

Stockley, Anne, 488 

Stokes, A. Y., 185 

Stone. William, 496, 497 

Storrow, Samuel, 385 

Stratford, Westmoreland Co., 324, 372 

Stratton, Benjamin, 498 

Stuart, Ferdinand Stuart Campbell, 324; J. E. B., 277 

Swan (Gov.), 377 

Swan Tavern, Richmond, 159 

Sylvania, Louisa Co., 213 

Syme, John, 101 ; Sally, 202 

Tabb, Edward, John H. and Thomas Todd, 241; Henry, 234, 241; 

J. Prosser, 233; John, 242, 243; Martha, 243; Philip, 234, 241, 

242; Prosser, 237; Thomas, 94 
Taliaferro, James Lyons and William, 236; Lucy, 347; R. P.. 245; 

Thomas, 246; Warner, 234; William Booth, 234, 235 
Tallwood, Albemarle Co., 417 
Tarleton, Gen.. 275, 281, 401, 405 



524 INDEX 

Tarpley, James, 17 

Tasker, Benjamin and Frances, 322 

Tate, Mr., 153 

Tayloe, Ann Corbin, 223, 343; Benjamin Ogle, 342, 344; Betty, 342, 
343; Catherine, 337; Henry, John I, John III (of Mt. Airy), John 
IV and Rebecca, 344; John II (of Mt. Airy), 338, 342, 3*43, 345; 
William I, 343; William II and Mrs. William, 342; William EL, 
342, 344 

Taylor, Mrs., 307; D. W., 214; Fielding Lewis, 225; George, 269; 
Henry, 212; John and John Penn, 270; Maria, 83; Sarah Griffin, 
459 

Tazewell Hall, Williamsburg, 32 

Teackle, Thomas, 486 

Tedington, Charles City Co., 62 

Thackeray, William M.', 117, 150 

Therett, Anne, 315 

Thompson, Anne and John, 306; John R., 64 

Thornton. Capt., 300; Anthony I, 197; Anthony II (of Ormesby) and 
Thomas Griffin, 297; Anthony III (of Ormesby), 297, 299 ; Butler 
Braj^ne, Francis III (of Fall Hill), Rev. Francis, Frances Gregory 
and Harry Innes. 306; Elizabeth (Taliaferro) and Mary (Talia- 
ferro), Francis II (of The Falls), 305, 399; Francis IV (of Fall 
Hill), James Innes and Robert Calloway, 307; Harry, 299; John, 
298; Sally Innes, 306, 307; William, 305, 385 

Thoroughgood, Adam, 45, 47 ; Sir John and Thomas, 45 

Thoroughgood House, Princess Anne Co., 45 

Thorpe, George. 86 

Throckmorton, Sir William, 86 

Thweatt, Archibald and Richard N., 110 

Tiffany, Evelyn (Custis) and Louis McLane, 484 

Timberneck, Gloucester Co., 216 

Todd, Dorothea Payne, 386; Thomas, 238, 241; Thomas I. 238 

Toddsbury, Gloucester Co., 238 

Tompkins, Mrs. Christopher, 232; " Capt. Sally," 232, 243 

Towles, Frances, Henry, Henry. Jr.. Keturah, Porteus, Stockeley and 
Thomas, 315; Howard McJelton and James, 31 6; William Henrv, 
315, 316 

Towles Point, Lancaster Co., 315 

Trigg, Mary, 466; Stephen, 479 

Troubetskoy, Amelie (Rives) (Chandler), Princess, 401 

Tuckahoe, Goochland Co., 1 68, 173 

Tucker, Alice, 50; Elizabeth Travis, 414; Nathaniel Beverley, 23; 
Harry St. George, 41 ; St. George, 23, 202, 351 

Tucker House, Williamsburg, 23 

Turpin, Baron de. 464; Caroline, 164; Philip, 163 



INDEX 5^5 

Tyler D. Gardiner, 75; John (Pres.), 13, 18, 32, 74, 123, 489; John 

* (Pres.), 13, 18, 32, 74, 423, 489; John Poyntz (Bp.), 333; Louis, 
423; Julia (Gardiner), ?t 

Underbill, John, Jr., 40 

Union Hill, Cumherland Co., 185; Nelson Co., 199 
University of Virginia, 405 
Upper Brandon, Prince George Co., 70 

Upshur, Abel P., 489; Arthur. 486, 488; John. 187, l>88; Thomas, 188; 
Thomas T., 486, 487, 188; William Brown. 187 

Valentine. Edward V. and Mann S., 141 
Valentine Museum, Richmond, 137 
Vandyke, Anthony, 67 
Van Lew, Miss, 118, 121 ; Mr., 121 
Van Lew House Richmond, 118 
Vaucluse, Northampton Co., 489 
Vauter's Church, Essex Co., 295 

Walker Francis, 392, 401; Jane Frances, 392; John. 399. 400, 401; 
Judith Page, 401; Lindsay, 196; .Mary. 346; Mildred, 400; 
Thomas, 396, 399, 401, 405; Capt. Thomas, 396 

Wallace, W. J., 264 

Wallop House, Accomac Co., 494 

Walthall, Edward. 165 

Ward Mr., 332; Maria. 133, 167; William Norvell, 322 

Warner, Augustine I and Mary, 248 ; Augustine II, 248, 254; Elizabeth 
and Mildred, 249 

Warner Hall, Gloucester Co., 247 

Warren. Charles Walker and William A., 53; Thomas, 57 

Warren House, Surry Co., 57 

Washington, Mrs., 31, 231 ; Augustine. 363; Betty, 347; Bushrod. John, 
John Augustine and John Augustine, Jr., 356; Elizabeth (Betty), 
303- George, 13, 18, 20, 31, 32, 39, 145, 146. 248, 249. 258, 303, 
312' 321, 323, 350, 356, 363, 367, 371, 399, 413, 424, 447, 448, 
197; Lawrence, 249, 346, 356; Mrs. Martha, 266, 359, 371 ; Mary, 
300 

Waters, William D., 417 

Watkins, Henry A., Col. Joel and Dr. Joel, 432; Joseph A. and Martha 

(Dver) 418 
Watson,' Anne (Nancy) and David, Jr., 213; David, Sr .210 211, 
212- George, 153, 210; James and Mary Minor, 212; Maj. James 
209^210, 213; Oliver, 351 ; Sally (Minor), Susan Dabney (Morris) 
and' Thomas S., 212; Thomas, 211 



526 INDEX 

Waverly, Gloucester Co., 241 

Wayles, Ellen, 70 

Webb, Conrad, 261, 263; George, 26l 

Weitzel, Gen., 137 

Welbourne, Drummond, 485 ; Aecomac Co., 495 

Wellford, Armistead Nelson, Carter and Elizabeth, 337; W. A., 385 

West, Anthony, 489 ; ReviL 489 

West End, Louisa Co., 212 

West House, on Deep Creek, 489 

Westmoreland Club, The, Richmond, 149 

Westover, Charles City Co., 78 

Westover Church, Charles City Co., 86 

Wetherburn, Henry, 27 

Weyanoke, Queen of, 70 

Weyanoke, Charles City Co., 70 

White, Mrs. Isaac, 410 

White Hall, Gloucester Co., 244 

White House, The, New Kent Co., 264 

White House of the Confederacy, Richmond, 130 

White Marsh, Gloucester Co., 242 

Whitefield, George, 93 

Whittington, Josephine Isabella, 316 

Whittle, F. M., 174 

Wickham, Henry T., 278; John, 137, 138, 141, 277; William Carter, 

276; William Fanning, 277 
Wight, Edwin. 172 

Wilkins, Eliza and William, 437; John, 496 
Wilkinson, Gen., 138 

Willcox, John Poythress, 76; John Vaughn, 75 
William of Orange, 269 

William and Mary College, Williamsburg, 10 
Williams, Sir Edward, 102; H. A., 250; John Langbourne and John 

Skelton, 167 
Williamson, Mary Amanda, Robert I, Robert II (of Brook Hill), and 

Robert Carter, 113 
Willing, Anne Shippen and Charles, 83 
Wilmer, J. B. P., 419 
Wilton, Henrico Co., 105 

Windy Cove Church and Wallawhatoola, Bath Co., 464 
Wingfield, Edward Maria, 1 
Winston, Mrs. Edmund, 427; Geddes, 121, 158; George D., 424; Peggy, 

121 ; Sally, 158 
Wirt, William. 155, 402, 412 
Withers, Alfred W., 251 
Wolfe, Gen., 269 



INDEX 



527 



Wood, Warner, 4 1 1 

Woodcliff, John, 86 

Woodfork. Charlotte Co.. 432 

Woodville, Albemarle Co., 414 

Wormeley, Mr., 846; Agatha (Eltonhead) and Ralph IV (of Rose- 
gillj, 288; Christopher and Ralph I (of Rosegill), 287; Elizabeth, 
884; Judith. 220; Ralph II (of Rosegill), 222, 288; Ralph V 
(of Rosegill). 288, 291 

Wren, Sir Christopher, 18 

Wyatt. Miss. 209 

Wythe. Chancellor George, 11, 18, 20 

Wythe House, Williamsburg, 20 

Yeardley, Francis, 45 ; Sir George, 70, 75, 86 
Yeatman, Mrs. Thomas Robinson. 231 
Yeocomico Church, Westmoreland Co., 330 
Young, Mary (Cary), 68 





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TALBOT HALL, NORFOLK COUNTY. BUILT IN 1800. 

Home of the following : Solomon Butt Talbot (—1801), Thomas Talbot (—1837), William Henry 

Talbot ( — 1884), and Thomas Talbot, the present owner. 



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